Poseidon
by Equinox1772
Summary: The twins and their friends are going to school aboard the Poseidon. All seems well at first but then disaster strikes! A Suite Life crossover with the 2006 movie Poseidon. It takes place at the end of the original show and before the "On Deck" series.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: ****I do not own the Suite Life of Zack and Cody or the movie Poseidon, or any character from those shows, only my OC's. **

**This story begins in the time period between The Suite Life of Zack and Cody and The Suite Life on Deck. I started it before the premiere of "On Deck" so the ship in this story is not the SS Tipton as we have come to know it in the show, but it is the ship Poseidon from the 2006 movie of the same name. At the time I began this story I knew only that the characters on "On Deck" were going to be attending a semester at sea program provided by Mr. Tipton so I incorporated that into my story by having the semester at sea program be on board the Poseidon. Anyway, enough explaining, enjoy the story!  
**

**Chapter One: News **

In her suite on the 23rd floor of the Tipton hotel, Carey Martin waited eagerly for her twin sons to arrive home from school. The news she had to tell them was big, bigger than big. She only hoped her boys would be as happy as she was.

It was a hot day in Boston and Arwin was working on the air conditioning on the 23rd floor so Carey had left the door open to let whatever cool air there was to come in the suite.

She heard the sound of Zack and Cody exiting the elevator and walking down the hallway talking.

Instantly, Carey jumped up from the couch to greet them.

"Boys! Come have a seat on the couch I have some great news to tell you!" Carey bubbled over with excitement.

Zack and Cody looked at each other with suspicious expressions before seating themselves on the couch.

"Okay, get this, London's dad has decided to venture into the cruise ship industry and he has had three new ships built for transatlantic and Caribbean cruises!" Carey began.

The boys sat quietly waiting for her to continue.

"Staff from various Tipton hotels have been chosen to relocate to the ships and guess what...that includes us!" Carey concluded brimming from ear to ear with barely contained excitement.

Much to her immediate dismay, her boys only looked back at her with blank stares and open mouths.

"You mean we have to leave our friends!?" Zack began standing

"And our school!?" Cody added also standing

The thought had occurred to Carey that her sons would be disappointed about leaving their familiar surroundings and she was prepared. Recovering quickly from her initial letdown, she launched into mother mode and began the long process of convincing them that this would be the experience of a lifetime.

"I know it will be hard to be away from all the friends you two have made but this is a big step for us. It'll mean a lot more money, we'll get to travel the world on big ships, and since they are Tipton cruises, people will be bringing their kids along for you two to make new friends" Carey said.

She could tell by the looks on their faces that they weren't buying it.

"You expect us to get excited over leaving our friends to go on a ship and make friends with people we'll only be with for a week before they leave and we never see them again!? The Tipton is our home mom! Boston is our home! What'll I tell Max!?" Zack launched, furious.

"And what'll I tell Barbara!? And I bet there is no bird watching club on the ship!" Cody added.

Zack looked at his twin and shook his head.

"If it hadn't been biologically proven to me, I'd swear we weren't related" he said.

"Okay…" Carey said, sighing.

She motioned for Zack and Cody to sit down again and she sat across from them on the coffee table.

"Boys, remember when we first moved in here and we were getting settled in, do you remember what I told you?" she asked gently.

"Yes" both said at once.

"You said that the Tipton was not our permanent home…, that until we actually lived in a house there would always be the chance that we'd have to move again" Zack said.

"That's right honey, and if this wasn't such a big salary hike, I wouldn't dream of making you leave your friends and your school where you've gotten used to things" Carey said.

"Are we even going to get decent schooling out on a cruise ship!?" Cody interrupted, looking suddenly panicked.

Zack just shook his head once more looking at Cody.

"Well, before you two went ballistic on me I was going to explain that Mr. Tipton has used his influence to expand the Semester-at-Sea program to include high school students. Entire decks of his ships have been set to be "floating schools." And as for the quality of the education Cody, Mr. Tipton only hires the best, you know that!" she finished.

Zack could tell his twin was finally beginning to cave and had to try and reel him back.

"But, we'd still be leaving our girlfriends, Cody…what about Barbara?" Zack said.

Before Cody could answer, Carey responded with a "hmmm."

"Hmmm what?" Zack asked.

"Something I just thought of…I wonder if Barbara's and Max's families would be interested in sending them on the Semester-at-Sea program" Carey said.

This momentarily excited the twins, but their smiles soon faded as a realization hit them.

"Max's family is not very rich, I don't think they could afford something like that" Zack said.

"Yeah, and even though Barbara's dad is fairly well off, I doubt they could afford it either" Cody added.

"Couldn't afford what!?" London Tipton said suddenly standing in the doorway of the suite.

London had been coming to see Carey when she overheard part of the conversation while standing in the open doorway.

Zack and Cody stared at each other with a look that each knew to mean _play this right and we can take our friends with us_

"We just found out about your dad's Semester-at-Sea program that our mom is taking us on while she sings on one of his ships…" Cody began.

"The only problem is...we don't want to leave all our friends…"Zack added.

"It'd be great if they could enroll in the program too and come with us, but we don't think their families would have the money to put them in the program" Cody said.

"Well, its funny you bring that up, daddy says that enrollment is low as it is and he said he'd be willing to wave at the tuition for up to 30 students so more people would experience the program and then tell others about it…Cody, what does he mean by 'wave at the tuition'?" London said.

"He said he'd waive the tuition, which means he'd pay for them…" Cody said.

"Oh, yaay them! That's why I was coming up here, to ask Carey to ask you two to spread the word at your school!"

"You mean we can each pick 15 friends to come along!?" Zack said.

"No, I'm going to ask Maddie and Mia…so what does that make?" London said quickly.

"14, and that's still awesome!" Cody said.

The twins did their trademark high five and Carey smiled.

"Just keep in mind boys, some of your friends may not be allowed to go" Carey cautioned.

"Yeah, yeah" they said in unison, half hearing her as they raced to their phones to start calling their closest friends.

"This is gonna be great!" Zack said.

"Yeah,_if_ they get to go!" Cody said dialing Barbara.

"Yeah, I hope they can!" Zack said dialing Max.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: This is the rather wordy "informative" chapter where you learn where they are going and such. The actual disaster won't happen until they have visited several ports of call…hope you like it. **

**Chapter Two: Chance of a Lifetime**

After Cody's phone call to Barbara, and Zack's call to Max, both sets of parents had requested a personal meeting with Carey and London to go over the specifics of the program.

That evening Carey, London, Zack, and Cody were all seated around a table in the Brownstein dining room with the Brownstein's and the Montgomery's while Carey went over all the material she had been able to gather from Mr. Moseby.

With each passing minute, Cody could sense that the dads not only liked the idea of the program, but definitely wanted to send their daughters. Their wives on the other hand, were being…well fretful mothers.

"It will give her the opportunity to see the world…and look here honey; they even have an advanced orchestra program in which the class meets right in the ship's grand ballroom!" Mr. Brownstein said to his wife.

"I'd be in that class with her!" Cody tossed in, obviously brimming with excitement.

"Let's not forget to mention that Mr. Tipton himself would be paying for them" Mr. Montgomery added.

"How long would she be gone again?…Oh and what if something awful happened out on the ocean…so many things can happen" Mrs. Brownstein said.

"Yeah, you hear all the time about people disappearing from cruise ships or getting food poisoning" Mrs. Montgomery added.

Cody began typing furiously on the laptop his mother had brought to show the presentation while Carey tried a different approach.

"The students will be monitored at all times by various Tipton _and_ Semester-at-Sea personnel…according to this, the only time the students are allowed off their designated deck, which is located here in the middle of the ship where they have their classes, dine, and bunk, is at certain hours of the day. At these various times, small supervised groups are taken up to the top decks for recreation…kind of like recess periods…there is a 1 hour morning, 2 hour afternoon, and 1 hour evening recreation time. Like normal school, the students have the weekends off but are still closely supervised. When the ship comes into port the students are led ashore by their homeroom teachers and remain with them at all times while field experiments in cultural and scientific studies are carried out, then they are led back to the ship to bed down…" she said.

"Oooo, and daddy says the students all wear this little bracelet thingie that goes up to the satellites and back to the ship so the teachers know where they are at all times!" London piped in.

"And you don't have to worry about safety at sea…" Cody began turning the laptop so the two families could see.

"…Mr. Tipton's new ships are not only the biggest yet built, but they have the latest safety equipment and multiple backup systems. Shown here is a test on a model that shows how the ships can weather even a category 3 hurricane!" he added.

"Well Cody, the_Titanic_ had the latest and greatest too and look what happened to it" Mrs. Brownstein said.

Cody looked defeated, but to his credit, both families began to look at the information about the ships that he had brought up.

"About the food thing, I heard they got chef Paulo to be the chief chef on the ship we're all signed on to" Zack said.

"And knowing him like I do, food poisoning is the last thing you'll need to worry about" Cody added.

"I think we should let her go hon" Mr. Montgomery said.

"As do I" Mr. Brownstein said.

"Well, if the instructors are half as good as Mr. Tipton is boasting, we won't have to worry about a second rate education" Mrs. Brownstein said.

Zack made sure no one could see him, and then rolled his eyes.

"It's the chance of a lifetime, an all expense paid trip around the world! What could be better!?" Zack said.

"What do you think Marsha?" Mrs. Brownstein said to Max's mom.

"Oh what the heck, I'm actually getting envious the more I hear about it…okay!" Mrs. Montgomery said.

Zack, Cody, Max, and Barbara all jumped up excitedly giving high fives and shouting.

The next day at school Zack and Cody were busy giving the same presentation to their friends and peers. Carey had had sufficient pamphlets printed out and Cody had created a more advanced show on his laptop that their friends could take home on their flash drives and show their parents.

Carey and London made themselves available to speak to whichever family wanted more in depth information such as the Brownstein's and Montgomery's had wanted.

By day's end Zack and Cody each had their 14 people signed up. They each had an additional friend of theirs coming along and, to be fair, the twins had created a raffle during their lunch time and fellow peers had been randomly selected. Unfortunately, Zack noticed one of the school's top bullies, Russell, had won one of the spots. On the bright side, Bob and Mark were going along!

Maddie, as luck would have it, had been accepted at her top pick college on the same day London approached her so she decided not to accept the offer. London decided to take Chelsea Brimmer in her place. Mia was definitely on board.

Everything was set; they would all be leaving at week's end.

The twins sat in their room talking about what the trip was going to be like, Cody showing Zack different pages on the laptop as the pair sat on Cody's bed.

"What's the name of our ship again?" Zack asked.

"Poseidon, it's the middle ship of the three" Cody said.

"That's an odd name for a ship" Zack said.

"Not really, in Greek mythology Poseidon was the god of the sea, so it makes perfect sense to name a ship that" Cody replied.

"Leave it to a dork to know that" Zack said shifting to lie on his stomach on Cody's bed.

Cody sighed shrugging off Zack's comment even though it stung.

"Show me all the places that we'll be going to again!" Zack said.

"I already showed you 10 times" Cody replied.

"I know, I know, but I forgot some of em'" Zack said.

Cody smiled and reloaded the map of the ships course.

"Our particular semester-at-sea course is the Pacific package, so we'll start out hitting the Bahamas before heading south through the Caribbean Sea and down along the South American coast. We'll be stops in Brazil and Argentina before rounding the tip of South America and heading out into the open Pacific. We go all the way over to Pago Pago Island, New Zealand, Australia, then up to Taiwan, China, and Japan, before cutting back east hitting Hawaii and ending up in San Francisco. When we dock there, London's plane will fly us back to Boston" Cody explained and Zack watched all the locations light up.

"Wow, I'm looking forward to the Bahamas and Hawaii the most…think of all the babes!" Zack said hopping off Cody's bed to get in his own.

Despite being a nice thought for Cody as well, he nevertheless rolled his eyes at Zack.

"That really is all you think about isn't it?" Cody asked.

"You make it sound like a bad thing" Zack replied.

"Not a bad thing, no, but there are other things out there to think about" Cody said

"Yeah, like what 'Greek mythology'" Zack said yawning.

Cody just looked down at his bed.

"Let's try and get some sleep…the sooner we do the sooner it'll be time to head to Miami to catch the boat" Zack said turning over.

But sleep didn't come easy to Zack and Cody that night. Each kept thinking about what lie ahead. What had seemed to them a bad idea at first had turned into a dream come true, to sail the high seas with their friends.

What actually awaited them was nothing short of a nightmare.


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: The action picks up here as the gang leaves the Tipton for Miami…enjoy! **

**Chapter Three: Miami**

Taking one last look at their suite, what had been their home for the last 3 years, the Martins switched off the light and closed the door. They walked to the elevator, got in, and descended to the lobby.

What awaited them when the elevator doors opened took their breath away. It seemed as if every Tipton employee had gathered in the lobby to say farewell to the Martins.

There was Esteban…

"Goodbye little blond peoples, goodbye Carey, have a safe trip" he said.

Muriel…

"Say hello to Popeye for me!" she said in her raspy voice.

Arwin…crying as Carey approached…

"Take care (sob) I hope everything goes well on your trip (sob)" he said.

Carey gave the handyman a big hug and kiss while handing him a handkerchief. To her surprise he didn't faint.

There was Irene the concierge, Lance the pool guy, Patrick the waiter, and finally Mr. Moseby.

The Martins walked down this hallway of employees shaking hands and giving hugs.

When they got to Mr. Moseby Carey shook his hand and then watched in shock as both of her sons embraced the manager.

Moseby, not sure whether to cheer because the twins were leaving, or to cry because he was loosing the closest thing he had to sons, just hugged them back.

"Safe journey boys, Carey…I can't believe I'm saying this but…I will miss you, and if this ship thing doesn't work out, always remember you have a home here" he said.

"Even if we pull our shenanigans?" Zack asked.

Moseby just growled a response.

"Okay, I'm all ready!!" London said stepping out of the elevator followed by what looked like the entire contents of her suite carried by bellhops.

"Were gonna need a bigger boat" Cody said staring in disbelief like the rest of them were.

Outside the Tipton, two limousines waited to take them to London's Jet at Boston's Logan airport.

It was quickly determined that one limousine would be needed just for London and her things while the others would all go in the other one.

The Brownsteins pulled up followed by the Montgomerys, and Bob's family was the last to arrive. The families all said lengthy goodbyes before the gang all piled in their respective limos and they were off to the airport.

Traveling on the causeway that led to Logan International Airport, everyone looked out their windows at the planes taking off and landing and at the boats in Boston harbor. The sun was shining bright and excitement ran high.

"I can't believe this is really happening!!" Cody said to the others.

The others shared his disbelief as the cars raced closer to the airport.

"I'm glad you all got to come along" Carey said.

"How many students are going to be on there with us?" Barbara asked.

"London says Mr. Tipton wanted 300 on board so every room was full on your deck. Enrollment was only around 265 so that's why he asked Zack and Cody to round up some more kids" Carey replied.

"Oh, cool" she said smiling.

The limos were admitted right to the tarmac where London's Jet sat waiting. A charter bus carrying the other students from Zack and Cody's school was already unloading. Security was present giving each student a check with their metal detecting wand.

Once everyone was checked and stood waiting in a line, London walked in front of the group. Zack, Cody, and Bob spotted Mark and waved, walking over to him with the girls in tow.

"Thank you on behalf of my daddy, Mr. Tipton, for agreeing to come on this trip! Well, what are we all waiting for, everybody get on!" London said to them.

As the ground crew loaded everyone's baggage, London led the way up the stairs followed by Chelsea, Mia, Carey, Zack, Max, Cody, Barbara, Bob, Mark, and the 24 other students.

Everyone got seated and the Boeing 737's massive engines roared to life. The hired flight attendants went through the safety speech and the plane began to taxi. When they reached the beginning of the runway the plane came to a stop and waited for clearance to take off.

Zack and Cody had only flown once before when they went out to Hollywood with London, Maddie, Carey, and Mr. Moseby so both of them were a little bit nervous. They were trying very hard to hide that fact from their girlfriends that now sat beside them. Of course, their expressions gave them away immediately.

"Zack, don't tell me you've never flown before" Max said to him.

"Actually, I have, this would be mine and Cody's second time" he said talking fast despite himself.

"You just seem a little nervous is why I mentioned it" Max said.

"Me nervous? Pshhh, I'm not nervous" Zack replied.

From somewhere below their seats a small bang emitted from the plane.

"What was that!?" Zack asked as he and Cody nearly jumped out of their seats.

"Easy, that was just the flaps extending, see out there on the wing?" Barbara said to Zack in front of her and Cody beside her.

"Oh, I knew that" Zack said.

Barbara simply gripped Cody's hand to calm him. He smiled at her and then reached a hand through the seats in front of him and tapped Zack's shoulder. Zack turned around and locked eyes with his twin.

Cody gave him a look that said _everything is going to be okay_. Zack smiled, turned back around and looked out the window. Max suddenly jumped herself and grabbed Zack's hand as the plane revved up and began to launch down the runway.

"You've never flown!?" Zack said. Max nodded.

Zack smiled to himself feeling better that he could once again be the protective male.

When the plane's nose tipped into the air and the wheels left the ground Zack, Max, and Cody watched the land slant and fall away.

As if on cue both Zack and Cody put their heads between their legs.

"Oh yeah, my macho man!" Max said turning away from the window herself. Barbara just laughed.

"Twins all the way eh Max?" she said.

"Like birds changing direction at the same time!" Max replied.

"Shut up, I'm experiencing verbatim" Zack said.

"Uh, you mean vertigo…me too" Cody said.

"You should have seen them on the flight to Hollywood…totally freaked out" Carey said from across the aisle.

"Mom!" the twins said in unison.

After a few minutes the boys put their heads back up and looked out the window. Both agreed it was actually very cool to see the ocean and the coast of Massachusetts from way up like they were.

"_Attention semester-at-sea students this is your captain speaking, travel time to Miami will be a little over four hours which will put us in around 3 pm. The ride should be smooth all the way but of course we will keep you updated if anything should change. Thank you"_

Bob popped up from behind Cody's seat where he sat with Mark.

"This is so awesome guys, thanks so much for asking me to come along!" Bob said

"We wouldn't have dreamed of leaving you behind Bob" Cody said.

The group started a game of hot potato throughout the plane in which even Carey and the flight attendants took part in. Later on some people just read or listened to their iPods and MP3 players.

Zack and Cody had gone up to use the restrooms around the same time as each other and thus were both near the back of the plane together. Cody waited for Zack to get done and to come out of the restroom.

"Hey Zack" Cody said.

Zack turned to face Cody.

"There's been something I've been meaning to ask you but with all the excitement I didn't get a chance to" Cody said.

Zack nodded for Cody to continue.

"When did you get back with Max? I thought you were trying to date Amber from school" Cody asked.

"Oh, well, Amber was playing way to hard to get…despite my confidence that I could tain her…" Zack began

"Attain" Cody corrected

"…right that too, I just found after a talk with Max that we still like each other" Zack finished.

"That's great man, I always did have a feeling about you two" Cody said.

"Thanks" Zack replied turning to go back to his seat.

"Oh Zack, one more thing" Cody said grabbing Zack's tee shirt.

"Yeah?" Zack asked. He knew something bigger than his current girlfriend was on his brother's mind.

"Um…were probably gonna run into a lot of people on the ship, maybe make a bunch of new friends…" Cody began.

"Yeah, I hope so" Zack said with a perplexed look on his face wondering where Cody was going with this.

"Yeah me too, it's just…" Cody began looking down and then back up "…you won't like, you know, forget about me and ignore me and stuff will you?" Cody finished.

"Forget you?…ignore you?" Zack gave Cody an incredulous look before softening his expression and laying a hand on his brother's shoulder.

"Look buddy, I may be a lot of things but I'm not the type of guy to ignore, let alone forget about his own twin…it's you and me always remember?" he said.

As arrogant and self-centered as Zack could be at times, Cody couldn't help but admit that he could be as equally nice when he wanted to.

"Thanks" Cody said.

"Sure, now lets go back to our seats before the girls send a search party after us" Zack said.

Cody laughed and followed him.

A few hours later the plane began its decent into Miami. It was late November but the captain said it was 85 degrees at the airport. The heavy sweaters and coats the gang had all worn to the plane would have to come off.

By now Zack, Cody, and Max were used to flying and the landing was actually fun for them.

The plane taxied to the terminal and the group could see another Tipton charter bus waiting as well as a limo for London. She didn't do busses she had said.

On board the bus, everyone's faces were plastered to the windows as they neared the waterfront where _Poseidon_ would be docked. Only London, the Martins, Max, Barbara, and Bob had seen a picture of the huge ship but pictures could never compare to what they were about to see.

Suddenly, stretched out along the still distant dock like a giant black skyscraper was the _SS Poseidon_. It looked similar to the other cruise ships docked around it as far as the general design and superstructure. What made _Poseidon_ unique was the fact that it was clearly bigger, and its paint scheme. She had a black hull with a white stripe at the top that contained a red stripe within it. She had a single stack near her stern with a large "P" painted on it.

As they got closer the ship seemed to get bigger and bigger until they could only see the bow of the great ship, the giant letters of her name prominently displayed in white lettering within the red band. The bus, now seemingly as tiny as a VW Bug pulled up to the area marked for "Semester-at-Sea" drop off. London's limo had gone on to a different boarding location with Carey.

Zack and Cody took charge of their group of students asking them to have their check-in papers ready and to start thinking about a bunk mate. It was hot as they stood in the sun with their luggage. The abrupt climate change was indeed a shock to everyone's system.

"Do we want to bunk together?" Cody asked.

"Of course, I thought that'd be a no brainer" Zack replied.

"Well, I didn't want to assume…we room together at home all the time" Cody said back.

"Cody, this _is_ our new home!" Zack said pointing over and up at the giant ship which loomed above them.

Cody smiled.

"Your right, I was thinking this was just like camp, a temporary thing, silly me" Cody said.

"Don't feel bad, I still want you to pinch me now and then to make sure it's really real" Zack said "OW! Not really!" he said playfully punching Cody in the arm.

The line inched forward. Zack sidled up behind Max and wrapped his arms around her stomach from behind.

"This is great isn't it!?" he said.

Max leaned her head back on his shoulder.

"Yes it is! But it's hot! I'd like to hurry up and get on the ship" Max replied.

Cody stood back with Barbara holding her hand.

"This isn't a dream, you know how I know?" Cody asked her.

"How do you know?" Barbara replied.

"Because I never could have dreamed this…being here, with Zack, my friends, especially you" he said kissing her on the cheek.

"Oh Cody, that's so sweet" she said leaning into him.

"Pshiff" Bob said standing behind them with Mark.

"Bob? What's wrong?" Cody asked turning.

"Oh nothing, I was just wondering what was burning hotter out here, the sun or you four" he said laughing.

"I think someone is jealous he doesn't have a girl to burn with…UFF…okay that came out wrong" Zack said as Max elbowed him in the side.

"Aww, leave the poor guy alone" Barbara said messing up Bob's red hair "besides, cruises are the best way of finding romance" she added.

"Says who?" Zack asked

"Hello, lots of new people you've never met before!" Cody replied.

"Huh, well in that case I better keep a close guard on this person I already know" Zack said smiling at Max.

"Yeah you better, lest I fall for a hot island guy during our stop in the Bahamas" Max teased.

Zack looked panic stricken.

"I'm joking, calm down tiger" she said.

Cody, Barbara, and Bob just laughed.

Finally they reached the booth. Zack and Cody let the girls go first and they presented their papers. The officials checked the papers over before signing them and giving them additional paperwork and their GPS bracelet. Barbara and Max would be roommates as would Zack and Cody.

When Zack and Cody stepped forward together the officials gave them the usual 'I must be seeing double' twin joke and repeated the same process with their papers. They stood over to one side and waited for the rest of their peers to come through the booth.

Russell suddenly appeared out of the group and bumped into Cody, knocking him to the ground. Instantly, it seemed before anyone could even blink, Zack's hand was around Russell's neck and he was squeezing a pressure point.

"Are we going to have a problem already Rus?" Zack said as the overweight buffoon began to sink towards the asphalt.

"Get off me Martin!" Russell said swatting Zack's hand away and standing to face him.

"Zack, not here, let's not get in trouble before we even get on the ship" Cody said trying to pull Zack back.

"Yeah, better listen to your clone sister Martin, let us at least get on the ship so I can throw you off it" Russell said.

Zack lunged but Cody held fast.

"Is there a problem here?" one of the SAS officials said walking up.

Zack continued to drill holes into Russell with his eyes before they both answered "no sir"

Cody and the girls led Zack away to the boarding ramp and everybody began to walk up toward the gangway doors of _Poseidon_.

Cody wasn't sure if it was the incident that had just taken place with Russell or something else, but as he walked up the ramp he began to get a very uneasy feeling about the voyage ahead. He shrugged it off as nerves as the huge gaping maw of the doorway got closer and closer…


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four: New Home**

As they walked through the gangway door and into the ship they found themselves in the main lobby. Two red carpeted staircases descended into the main part of the room. The ceiling was a massive round skylight and glass elevators lined the walls, carrying passengers to their desired deck. As they walked down the stairs with their luggage they looked every which way, trying to take it all in.

"Okay, this is cool!" Max exclaimed.

"No kidding it is, look at this place…it makes the Tipton look like a 2 star motel!" Cody replied.

They stood staring a moment longer before Zack finally snapped the group out of it.

"Our cabins are on deck 5, this is deck 8, so we have to go up three levels" he said.

"Thank you captain obvious, wait…did you just do math in your head!" Cody asked him in an astonished voice.

Zack shot his brother a look of death.

Cody just laughed "well let's get going then, I can't wait to see this so called 'school deck'!" he said.

"Yeah, let's hurry up and get the nerd to his new habitat" Zack said

Now it was Cody's turn to give the look of death.

"Okay you guys, stop the sniping, it's giving me a headache" Max said as they began walking towards one of the elevator enclaves.

"Don't you think that's from the heat outside and not me and Cody?" Zack asked.

"Its both" Max replied.

They were directed down a hallway towards the bow where they eventually came to a bank of three of ordinary looking elevators. These, they were told, provided service to deck 5 whereas the glass ones in the lobby did not. They walked up and Max pressed the up button. When the car arrived they got in and took the elevator up to deck 5. When the doors opened the group was surprised to see a relatively normal school type hallway lined with lockers and doors to classrooms.

Overhead signs directed the students to two separate areas where the cabins were. The girls cabins were located towards the stern and the boys cabins towards the bow.

"Well, that's just typical…put all the girls on the complete opposite end of the…" Zack began to rant but stopped short when he saw Max glaring at him. "…I mean what a great idea!" he added.

The commons area, where the students would eat, was located by the elevators.

"The people at the booth said we're supposed to drop our stuff off in our rooms and meet back here for our schedules…" Barbara said.

"Yeah, ok, then I guess we'll see you in a bit then" Cody said and they parted ways.

Zack, Cody, Mark, and Bob headed off towards the bow and soon arrived at a set of double doors that were guarded by SAS staff. The staff instructed them to use their room key cards to open the doors which they then did. Through these doors the décor of the hallway changed to a more hotel-like pattern. Zack and Cody were amazed to see that the carpet pattern was the same as back at the Tipton.

"If we get in our room and it looks exactly like our suite from the hotel, I'm gonna faint" Zack said.

"Yeah, remember when we got to Hollywood and our suite at that Tipton was almost identical to ours in Boston?" Cody said.

"Yeah, that was crazy" Zack replied.

"I doubt it will be that large, I'm guessing it will have two desks and bunk beds" Cody said.

"You saw a picture of the cabins on the site didn't you?" Zack asked.

"Yep" Cody replied smiling.

They came to a cross hall and read the sign that directed them to their cabin number which was 12. Bob and Mark were in cabins 43 and and 47 respectively which were to the right, opposite the direction Zack and Cody's cabin was in.

"See ya in a bit guys" Cody said as they split up.

Bob and Mark waved and headed off. Once they got alone Zack was barely able to contain his excitement.

"Sweet! It looks like were gonna get a cabin with a window!" Zack said.

They turned right again and began to notice the curvature of the hallway angling towards the very front point of the ship. They arrived at their cabin right before their hallway ended in a U-turn with the starboard side hallway.

Cabin 12 was one of the very first port side cabins. Cabins 11-1 were further down, and they noticed that once a person made the U-turn, the starboard side cabins began with the number 60.

"Huh, we could have kept walking with Bob and Mark and we would've eventually ended up here" Cody said glancing down the rest of the hallway.

Zack swiped his key card and the twins entered their cabin. Sure enough, there was a large porthole at the far end with two desks facing to their left and white metal bunk beds to their right. The entire room was probably 15 by 15 foot square.

"I get top bunk!" Zack said.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa…why do you get the top?" Cody said stopping Zack from plopping his stuff on the top bunk.

"Because I'm older" Zack replied.

"That's not actually true you know…we began our existence at _exactly_ the same time!" Cody argued.

"How do you figure that!" Zack asked.

"Learn biology!" Cody retorted.

"I was still born first!" Zack said.

Cody sighed calming down and trying a new approach.

"Let's just come up with a simple, fair way to decide this" Cody said

"Okay, how?" Zack asked.

"Well, clearly we can't have a spelling contest…or a math contest…or a history contest…" Cody began.

"Or a dork contest…" Zack added

Cody frowned and glared at Zack.

"Okay, rock, paper, scissors" Zack said.

Cody agreed and they began a best out-of-three challenge which Cody won.

"Aww man" Zack said, putting his stuff on the bottom bunk.

"Its cool bro, we can trade on and off…I'll make up a schedule" Cody replied.

"Agreed" Zack replied.

The two spit in their hands and shook on it.

Cody let Zack have the desk by the porthole and he took the other one. They unpacked their school supplies and placed their laptops on their desks. When they had settled in they grabbed their schedules, left their cabin, and went back to the commons to meet up with the rest of their peers from their school as they had previously planned while still on the charter bus.

When they arrived they made sure everyone, including Russell, was accounted for. They had all made the trip and the boarding and had settled in without loosing anyone.

Soon the large, elegantly styled commons filled up with the rest of the students and the director called everyone to attention.

"Welcome to the _Poseidon_ Semester-at-Sea students, I'm Director Hoss. You can think of me as your principal during our voyage. Hopefully you've all gotten settled in without any problems but in case you did encounter a problem this is Mrs. Hector and she can help you sort it out. Now, we will not be departing for another four hours or so and we would like you to use the time to get familiar with this deck and all the rooms and labs. To do this we will have all the teachers line up over here and you will group up with your appropriate homeroom teacher and follow them to your homeroom" Director Hoss said.

The SAS teachers lined up holding large name tags that everyone could see from a distance. Zack, Cody, Bob, Mark and the girls all got out their schedules and made their way over to the appropriate teacher.

It was no surprise that Zack and Cody had the same homeroom teacher, they always did. Their same last name was responsible for that.

Max had their homeroom as well but Barbara, Mark, and Bob had a different one.

Once in their homeroom, Mrs. Archer, their teacher, handed out some papers and went over the shipboard rules.

They learned that when the school day was over, it's beginning and ending times the same as normal high school; they were free to go anywhere on the ship as long as they logged on an electronic board where they were going. These boards tied into to the GPS tracking systems the students wore. This way, if the student ended up in a location that they did not designate on the board, the system could alert the staff who would then investigate. The log boards were located not only in the homeroom, but throughout the ship as well. This made it so students did not need to come back to their deck 5 homeroom to update their location.

"Allow me to demonstrate…" Mrs. Archer began "…say you begin here and you intend to go to the boat deck for some sun, you swipe your card and type in where you plan to go and any stops you plan to make along the way. If you get to the boat deck and you decide to go somewhere else, simply find another terminal like this one, swipe your card and update the system" she said.

She further informed the group that whenever they intended to return to deck 5 that the system would need to be informed of that as well with the exception of when they returned for dinner at 7pm which the system already knew was mandatory.

"Kinda sounds complicated" Bob whispered in Cody's ear as the teacher paused momentarily.

"Not really, if you just make sure you swipe your card wherever you go there shouldn't be any trouble…it's all for safety's sake, you know, so they can keep an eye on us" Cody replied.

Students, of course, were not allowed in the ship's adult clubs, bars, casinos, and crew only areas. They could attend performances in the ships ballroom, movies at the cinema, go to the water park, visit the astronomy dome, lounge on the boat deck, hang out in the game rooms, and use the gyms and weight rooms. There was even a teen dance club they could go to.

It was forbidden to interfere with non SAS passengers. The students could interact with them but they could not in any way interfere with the enjoyment of their cruise. A strict code of respectfulness towards those in authority and other passengers was demanded. Consequences for disobedience and other rule breaking were laid out.

As for Carey's previously mentioned daily "recess" periods…the program had been modified at the last minute so that, during the 8am to 2:30pm school day, and a post school day study hour which lasted until 3:30pm, students were confined to deck 5. After 3:30pm they were free to hang out wherever they wanted, reporting back to deck 5 only for dinner, until lights out at 11pm.

After a short tour of deck 5, where they were introduced to the libraries, labs, and the other classrooms, they were dismissed for the afternoon to get familiar with the rest of the ship.

Max and Barbara tore off together for deck 4 which was an entire mall from bow to stern. Zack, Cody, Bob, and Mark wanted to check out deck 10 where all the athletic things were.

After the boys had seen the gyms, weight room, Olympic size pool, tennis courts, and even an entire soccer field that could be used for baseball and football as well, Zack received a cell phone call from Carey asking them to come up to her suite on deck 2.

Along the way there, Bob and Mark decided to go check out the game rooms on deck 7 and separated from the twins.

When they arrived Zack and Cody were pleased to see that their mother's suite, since she _was_ the headliner for the ship, was a very elegant two bedroom suite with an ocean view, balcony, kitchenette, and living room. Her bedroom even had a Jacuzzi in it.

"Wow mom, your really living it up here!" Zack said opening her refrigerator to find it fully stocked with food furnished by the company.

"Thanks honey, I like it. How are your cabins?" Carey asked them.

"Small, we have bunk beds, two desks, and a porthole…but it's adequate I guess" Cody said.

"Well, one thing I wanted to let you guys know is, I talked to Mr. Hoss and he said that anytime you two want to come up here and stay for the night that you could!" Carey said.

The twins looked at each other excitedly.

"One thing though guys, at least during the semester I would like for you to try and stick it out in your own cabin as much as you can…this should be a time of independence for you, to kind of live on your own like the other kids on board, okay?" she said.

"So, we can come stay here but only once in a while?" Zack asked.

"You got it" Carey replied.

Zack kind of groaned.

"I think mom is trying to 'cut the apron strings' a little" Cody said.

"Cut the what?" Zack asked.

"She wants us to treat this like we're away at camp, so we can learn to be free thinkers and not so dependent on her all the time, right mom?" Cody said.

"Actually I just want some peace and quiet for once in 15 years" she replied.

The twins glared at her.

"Kidding guys…" she said bringing them into her for a hug "…yes, I do want you to treat this like you're away at camp, it'll be a fun experience…but if, _occasionally_ you want to come up here, that would be fine" Carey said.

"Awesome!" Zack said

"Yeah" Cody added.

"Well, after all, this ship isn't just your school…it's your new home…" she said.

They all looked at each other smiling.

"We'd better be getting out on deck; it's almost time for the ship to leave port!" Carey said.

Again, Cody's stomach took an inexplicable dive when he heard his mother's words. _Strange_ thought Cody _I must just be nervous about being on a ship._

Carey turned out the lights as all three of them left to go up on deck.


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: Thank you to my reviewers…xCole-and-Dylan-rockx, tiptonxprincess, mikromb13, and ClarkR! I am also enjoying your stories!**

**Chapter Five: Departure **

Carey, Zack, and Cody stood along a forward facing railing just below the bridge on deck 1. From this vantage point they could see the forward well deck, and the forecastle deck. Passengers clogged the railings all along these decks as well as the one they were standing on.

Zack and Cody suddenly spotted Barbara and Max in the crowd and Zack decided to try and call her on her cell phone to tell them where they were.

As he was dialing the number, the great ship's horn sounded and all three of them were effectively lifted from the deck by the sudden loud noise. His phone shot out of his hand and sailed down the slanted glass windows of the lounge restaurant one deck below until it hit some guy on the head.

"Sorry!" Zack yelled as loud as he could

The guy nodded and looked to be dialing something on Zack's phone. Soon Carey's phone rang. The guy had looked up 'mom' in Zack's phone and called her. He told Carey he would take the phone into the lounge and leave it with the hostess.

"Smooth move Zack" Cody said.

"Well, did you hear that horn!? What am I saying; you had to have heard it!" Zack said.

Cody and Carey just laughed.

Something made Barbara turn her head and look up to where they were and all three waved at her to get her attention. Barbara saw them and got Max to look.

The girls waved for Zack and Cody to join them.

"Can we mom?" Cody asked.

"Sure go, don't forget your phone on the way Zack!" Carey yelled after them as they tore off.

Down one flight of stairs and into the Star Tropics lounge on deck 2 they went to get Zack's phone.

"Excuse me ma'am, did someone bring a cell phone in here?" Zack asked.

"Yes, are you the one who dropped it on the windows and nearly gave my busboy a heart attack?" the hostess asked.

"Yes ma'am, the horn freaked me out" Zack replied sheepishly.

"Here you go hon, let's be more careful eh?" she said handing Zack his phone.

"I will, thank you ma'am" Zack said as they began to leave the lounge headed for the well deck.

As they moved through the ship they suddenly heard a slight rumble noise.

"They must have started the engines Zack, let's hurry and get out there!" Cody said and they started jogging.

When they reached the railing by the girls, the ship was slowly inching away from the dock. All four of them watched the bubbles come up from the forward bow thrusters. Zack and Cody turned and looked up at Carey who waved. They were finally leaving!

The channel in Miami was large enough so that even the massive _Poseidon_ could maneuver without the help of tug boats. Once the ship was in the middle of the channel they heard the main engines start and the ship began to move forward.

"Come on guys; let's go all the way to the front!" Zack said.

"Oh no, your not gonna do your 'I'm the king of the world!' impression like you did on dad's sail boat are you?" Cody asked.

"Well…I wasn't going to…" Zack replied.

"And your still not going to" Max said.

They moved to the very front point of the ship and found it surprisingly void of people. They looked over the side and down watching the water move around the bulbous nub that made up the very front of the ship down by the waterline.

They watched other boats sail alongside and ahead of _Poseidon_ as she moved down the channel towards open water. The people on these boats waved and some blew their tiny horns.

As if in response _Poseidon_ let loose again with one of her giant horn blasts. This time, being further away from it, Zack and Cody managed to keep their feet on the deck.

It seemed as if everyone in the Miami area that had a boat had come out to watch the huge ship leave. She was, after all, one of the biggest in the world. It made the kids feel proud, for Barbara and Max because it was their new school, for Zack and Cody because it was their new home.

Pretty soon Bob and Mark appeared next to them.

"Hey, you found us" Cody said.

"Yeah I found Carey and she told us where you guys were" Bob said.

"Isn't this amazing!?" Mark said.

"Sure is" Max replied.

_Poseidon_ rounded a curve in the channel and suddenly there was the open ocean dead ahead with nothing but water as far as the eye could see.

Cody's stomach dropped again as he watched the aqua blue water of the channel change to the deep blue of the ocean ahead of them.

Zack, being his twin, noticed immediately.

"What's wrong Codes, your face just went white as a sheet" Zack said.

"Um, I…I don't know, I just got a funny feeling…it's happened a few times before since we got to the ship…it's probably just nerves…being all alone out there with no land around for days" Cody replied.

"But you said it yourself, this ship is so totally self-sufficient and safe, we won't need land to be nearby" Zack reassured him.

"Yeah, were gonna be fine Cody" Barbara said taking his hand.

"I know, like I said it's probably just nerves, like in the plane today…it'll pass" Cody said.

The four stood at the front of the ship until _Poseidon _had cleared the channel markers and committed herself to the open ocean. They felt the big ship accelerate in speed and the wind began to whip faster through their hair.

They decided to walk the length of the ship so they could watch the coast of Florida disappear behind them. They each updated the student system and began their nearly one mile long journey.

They climbed three decks up to the top boat deck and began walking past other passengers settling onto deck chairs to get some sun.

"I am really liking the smell of the air" Max said as she strode next to Zack, her hand in his.

"Yeah, smells like Cape Cod in the summer, only it's a lot warmer" Zack said.

"I didn't know you guys go to the Cape, I love it up there" Max replied.

"Yep, our dad has a cottage up there…and in the rare times he wasn't touring he used to take me and Cody up there" Zack said.

"He doesn't anymore?" Max asked.

"Not for a long time" Zack said quietly.

Max could see it was a touchy subject so she changed it.

"Have you and Cody got the same schedule?" she asked.

"We actually haven't even compared…hey Codes; you got your schedule with you still?" Zack said turning his head to look at his brother.

Cody and Barbara, with Bob and Mark on each end, were doing the cross-step walking thing like Zack, Cody, London, and Maddie had done at the beach in Hollywood.

"Yeah" he said getting it out.

"Max just reminded me, we all haven't compared schedules yet" Zack said.

They sat down in some deck chairs, having gone about halfway to the stern and began comparing class schedules.

Cody, of course, had a lot of AP classes but it looked like he would have literature, PE, and botany with Zack.

"Botany!? What the heck is that?" Zack asked.

"Where you learn how plants grow and things like that" Max replied.

"And check this out this list of sports electives, there's basketball, tennis, even fencing!" Cody said.

"Fencing? That seems like an odd choice for PE on a ship" Zack said.

"I think it could be fun, you can combine what you learn in fencing to more martial arts type sword fighting!" Cody said.

"So, you mean, instead of us whacking each other's fingers every time we play swords at home we'll actually know what were doing instead of just swinging!?" Zack asked excitedly.

"Yep!" Cody replied.

"Sweet! Doesn't sound so dumb after all" Zack said.

"You guys still play swords at home!?" Max asked with a small chuckle.

Zack and Cody quickly looked at each other, realizing they had let something out that they would have preferred their girlfriends not know.

"Uhum…" Zack began with a cough, lowering his voice to sound more manly "…well, not as much as we used to" he finished.

"Uh huh, do you also still play with rubber duckies in the tub?" Barbara joined in the teasing.

"Hey! Leave duckie out of this!" Cody said defensively.

"Relax guys, their just teasing you" Bob said.

"Thank you Bob, yes, we're just teasing" Barbara said.

Cody still looked hurt, but smiled soon enough.

It was discovered that Max and Zack had a few classes together with Bob and Mark. Cody and Barbara had Orchestra and a few AP classes together.

They got up and resumed their walk.

"It's okay that were not all in the exact same classes together, we'll be able to see each other during breaks, lunch, and of course, after school when we can crash that dance club!" Zack said.

"And that water park!" Bob said.

"And the astronomy dome!" Cody said.

Zack shook his head with an added "dork"

Max swatted him.

"You be nice to him, just cause he likes to do educational stuff, you'd do yourself some good if you paid a little more attention in school" Max said.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah…whatever…we'll worry about that stuff later, right now let's just have fun!" Zack replied.

Max just rolled her eyes at him, smiled, and the two started a jog towards the stern.

"Hey, let's go check out that water park Mark, I bet we find some girls down there!" Bob said to Mark and the two peeled off and ran inside the ship leaving Cody and Barbara alone.

"But, I think educational stuff _is_ fun" Cody said in the direction that Max and Zack had run.

"He's not always very nice to you is he?" Barbara said noticing how down Cody suddenly looked.

Cody didn't say anything; he just shrugged it off as he always did.

"Come on m'lady, we better push off if were going to catch up with the likes of them" Cody said with a British accent.

She accepted his arm and they jogged off after Max and Zack.

At the very back of the ship, by a short flagstaff that held a flag with a giant "P" on it, Zack and Max stood watching Florida recede from them. Fluff generated in the water in the wake of _Poseidon's_ four isopod propellers lay like a carpet leading back towards the coast.

Cody and Barbara appeared at the rail next to them.

"What took you two so long, and where did Bob and Mark go?" Zack asked

"You weren't here that long before us…and they went to the water park to scope out some girls" Cody replied.

"You make it sound like were cows in a field and you guys are the farmers come to see which of us will make choice meat" Max said.

"Well…no, I mean…" Cody began.

"Uh…he didn't mean it like…hey, I don't think we…" Zack sputtered.

"I'm just teasing again Zack, chill" Max said smiling.

"Wow, the shore already looks distant" Cody said.

"Yeah" Zack said.

They all continued to stare out, talking amongst themselves, until the coast blended in with the water and vanished. The evening sun was lowering into their eyes.

"What time you got Codes?" Zack asked.

"6:30" Cody said.

"We'd better be heading back to deck 5 for dinner" Barbara said.

"I wonder if chef Paulo's staff makes our food too or if it will be just like normal school food" Zack said as they began walking.

Behind them, the sky began to turn a yellow color.

Noticing, Zack stopped and had Cody turn around.

"What is that old sailors saying about the sunset if its yellow?…yellow sky at night…" Zack began.

"…sailors take fright" Cody finished.

"Yeah that one" Zack said.

Cody shivered even though it was still quite warm out before he and his brother turned and followed the others inside.


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: The gang is finally out at sea...but you will soon see that some of them don't take to it very well...**

**Chapter Six: Sea Legs**

Dinner had gone off without a hitch. Much to the delight of Zack and Cody, chef Paulo's staff was in charge of preparing the meals for the SAS students. They had been sufficiently spoiled with a buffet holding foods such as sirloin steaks, grilled salmon, steamed vegetables, pastas, salad and fruit bars, and even hamburgers and french fries for those addicted to fast foods.

Of course, Zack had gone completely insane, piling four plates high with all he could get. And then there was the desert table. Cody actually had to physically stop Zack from returning to the cart, which had anything from pies and cakes to various kinds of soft serve ice cream, after his third trip.

Cody and the others had eaten their fair share of the food as well and, as _Poseidon_ entered an area of moderate seas just west of the Bahamas, they all began to regret it.

Being as huge as she was, _Poseidon_ could take 30 foot swells and barely roll at all. For most, the 15 to 20 foot seas she was currently in was no big deal at all. For Zack, Cody, Bob, and probably half the SAS students, however, the ever so slight shifting of the deck under their feet definitely became a big deal.

The shower and restroom facilities for the boys section, located between the port and starboard hallways, had become a pretty popular spot. It was probably a two minute walk from their cabin under normal conditions. This night, however, it sometimes became a 35 second dash as first Zack, then Bob, and finally Cody eventually succumbed to sea sickness.

Bob, as luck would have it, had politely negotiated with his cabin mate and a few others and had ended up rooming with Mark a few doors down from the twins in cabin 3 which made Bob's dash slightly longer.

The four of them now sat in the boys' rec. room which occupied the triangle shaped space between the port and starboard hallways forward of the shower and restroom facilities. The room was designated a game room in some parts and a quiet room for studying in others. Right now Zack, Bob, and Cody all lay sprawled on their left sides in bean bag chairs as Mark sat in a recliner nearby playing a video game.

"Uhhh, why did I eat so much?" Zack asked moaning as _Poseidon_ shifted herself under them.

"Uhhh, because you always eat too much" Cody replied, mirroring his twin's agonized voice.

"Hey!…yeah your right" Zack said, knowing the argument was useless.

"I guess we just need to get our sea legs" Bob said, a cold rag covering his face.

Zack and Cody looked over at Mark. The small frizzy haired boy was mashing away madly at his game controller.

"Why aren't you sick!" Cody asked in misery.

"Me? I was born with sea legs!" Mark said.

"Lucky you" Bob croaked.

"I think that was a dirty trick, giving us all that food on our first night out…I mean, they had to know we were gonna encounter these rough seas!" Zack said.

"Don't be so sure, from what I heard even chef Paulo got seasick" Cody replied.

"How'd you hear that?" Zack asked.

"Mom, she saw him tonight during her show, he had to run off to his cabin before he even got to serve his Chicken ala Paulo to the captain" Cody said.

"Oooo, please don't mention chicken…or any other food" Zack hissed.

_Poseidon_ tipped slightly again.

"Time to go!" Zack said jumping up and running off toward the restrooms.

"We will eventually get used to this right Cody?" Bob asked.

"That's what the nurse said" Cody replied.

"Oh, you mean the nurse that's been roaming the halls since dinner with a cart full of Dramamine?" Mark asked.

"That'd be the one…that cart reminds me of a little ice cream cart like street vendors have. It should have music that plays 'row row row your boat' over and over as it goes down the hall" Cody said sarcastically.

"Ice cream…" Bob said shuddering and turning from his back onto his left side again "…geez Cody, Zack said not to bring up food again"

"Yeah, and now he's in the bathroom doing just that" Mark said laughing.

The others just looked at him blankly.

"Get it? Bringing up food...because he's in there and he's..." Mark began.

"Ha ha…I didn't know you were funny" Cody interrupted in a monotone voice before shakily standing to his feet.

"Where you goin'?" Bob asked.

"As much as I hate the sound of people retching, I better go see if he needs anything" Cody replied stumbling in the direction his brother had gone.

He met Zack coming out of the restroom spraying Listerine mist into his mouth.

"Hey bro, is it that time for you too?" Zack asked.

"No, I was just coming to see if you needed help or anything" Cody said.

"Thanks, but no, unfortunately everything came out okay in the end" Zack said.

"What is this, comedy night?" Cody said.

"Huh?" Zack asked.

"All the jokes about throwing up, first Mark, now you" Cody replied.

"Why what'd he say?" Zack asked.

Cody explained what Mark had said and Zack laughed a little at it then stopped suddenly, grabbing his stomach.

"Dude, don't make me laugh" Zack said.

"Sorry…heard from the girls?" Cody asked as they walked back towards the bean bag chairs.

"Max is just as bad off as us, don't know about Barbara, Max only stayed on the net long enough to tell me about herself" Zack said.

"I better log on and IM her" Cody said.

Since leaving the cell phone towers of the mainland, the only way for the SAS students to communicate with others in different parts of the ship was through the IM service provided on each student's laptop.

Cody walked to their cabin and sat down at his desk. He found the room to be a bit stuffy so he unlatched and propped open the porthole. Fresh sea air streamed into the room but it seemed to enhance the displaced feeling beneath him and intensify his nausea so he slammed it shut again.

He logged on and noticed Barbara was already signed on and waiting for him.

_GeologyRox13: How are you m'lady?_

_Violinmaestro62: I'm fine but it seems as if the entire girls section is getting sea sick…miss you!_

_GeologyRox13: Same in our section, including me and Bob, and Max probably told you Zack's sick too…Mark's fine…it's only been half an hour and you miss me!_

_Violinmaestro62: Sorry to hear you guys are sick too, and yes she told me about Zack, it's weird how some take to the sea fine while others don't…and yes I do miss you, it's been a half hour too long! _

_GeologyRox13: I'd love to go do something together but I'm just so shaky and blah…it stinks too cause it's our first night out. I got some Dramamine from the nurse so maybe I'll be okay by morning._

_Violinmaestro62: It's no problem I completely understand…if you're in similar shape as Max…trust me I understand. She got some of those pills too from our nurse. Just sleep as best you can and I'll talk to you tomorrow…I'll stay signed on in case you want to talk later._

_GeologyRox13: I'll stay signed on too._

_Violinmaestro62: I'll try not to hold it against you that you got seasick and I didn't ;-) Goodnight my darling._

_GeologyRox13: Ha, see that you don't ;-) Goodnight._

Cody signed off as Zack stumbled in the cabin.

"Well?" he asked.

"She's fine, like Mark, and she's gonna rub it in that she didn't get sick when I did" Cody said smirking.

"Yeah…well that's great that she's great…do you have a gun?" Zack asked.

"Umm, no" Cody said.

"Darn, I was hoping you could shoot me and put me out of my misery" Zack said sarcastically.

"At least we get to have this exciting experience together…instead of one of us having to take care of the other like when mom and I were sick…" Cody began.

"…And you two drove me nuts all week long, yeah I remember" Zack said, interrupting.

"Well, we can help each other now" Cody said.

"Right, what's the first thing we should do?" Zack asked.

"Turn off the lights, get into our bunks, and go to sleep" Cody said already climbing up the rungs to his bunk.

"Great plan! You know, I really don't give you enough credit for your enginetuidy" Zack said hitting the light switch and flopping into bed.

"Ingenuity" Cody corrected, his voice muffled from landing face down on his pillow.

"Yeah, that too" Zack said.

"Tomorrow we'll be in the Bahamas…everything will be fine" Cody said already falling asleep.

"I hope so" Zack said yawning.

"Night bro" Cody said.

"Night" Zack replied.

The term Siamese dream was not a foreign one to Zack and Cody. They had experienced this phenomenon common to identical twins a few times before over the course of their lives. They would wake up at the same time and reveal to the other the exact same dream. Sometimes the shared dream would be pleasant, sometimes it would be very unpleasant.

This first night at sea, Cody was dreaming. What he didn't know was that his brother was also dreaming the very same thing…and this dream turned out to be one of the unpleasant ones.

**Cody's POV in dream…**

_Cody was trapped, his leg was pinned under something heavy but he couldn't see what it was. There was water all around and it was getting higher as the large room he was in flooded. Zack was there, working feverishly to free him without much success. Cody could see that there was not much time left before he would be underwater. He didn't know why, but he suddenly felt that if he didn't tell Zack to leave right then that his brother would die too._

"_Zack, go! Get out of here while you still can!" Cody yelled over the sound of the water. _

"_I'm not leaving you here!" Zack yelled back. _

"_Zack…the water will get you too…GO NOW!" Cody said struggling against whatever held his leg down._

"_NO! I'm getting you out of here!" Zack all but screamed at him._

_The water reached Cody's neck and he felt certain he was going to die…_

**Zack's POV in dream…**

_Zack saw his brother trapped by the leg in a large room which was flooding. He knew if he didn't free him that he would lose his twin there. That was unacceptable. He set to work trying to remove whatever bound his brother's leg, its actual appearance lost within the dark fog of the dream. Suddenly realizing he couldn't move the object, Zack began to feel panic set in. The water was getting higher._

"_Zack, go! Get out of here while you still can!" Cody shouted to him. _

"_I'm not leaving you here!" Zack replied. _

_In blind desperation he dove down to the now submerged object, straining with all his might to move the object. He surfaced, frustrated, and scared. He looked around the room for anything or anyone to help him._

"_Zack…the water will get you too…GO NOW!" Cody said._

'_Oh Lord…I'm going to lose Cody…right here…right now' Zack thought._

"_NO! I'm getting you out of here!" Zack screamed as he felt tears coming to his eyes._

_He saw the water inching towards his brother's neck…_

Zack and Cody woke up and sat straight up at the same time, Zack striking his head on the bottom of Cody's bunk.

"Cody!" Zack said ignoring the pain and jumping out of the bunk.

"Zack!" Cody said, looking down from the top bunk.

Zack stood there in the center of the dark cabin, breathing hard, holding a hand to his heart, and visibly shaking.

Zack spoke very quickly, trying to tell Cody the details of the dream. Being very upset by the dream himself and seeing how freaked out Zack was, Cody jumped down from the bunk and grabbed hold of his brother's shoulders. He realized he too was shaking.

"Zack, Zack, calm down I can't understand you but it sounds like we had the same dream!" Cody said.

Zack calmed down a little and they sat down on the edge of Zack's bunk.

Cody gave his version of the dream and Zack confirmed it was the same one he'd had. When they were done comparing the dream they sat in silence for a few moments.

"What do you think it means?" Cody asked.

"I don't know, but that was the worst dream ever" Zack said.

"I thought I was going to lose you and it felt so real" he added, his voice cracking.

Cody, seeing how distressed Zack was, suddenly put his hand on Zack's shoulder and made eye contact with him.

"It was just a dream…nothing more, I'm still here and I'm not going anywhere" Cody said.

Cody suddenly thought about when they were younger and used to comfort each other after a bad dream or a thunderstorm. This was a lot like those times. This, however, was a departure from normal since Zack, being the oldest, was usually the one to comfort the more sensitive Cody.

Zack, who rarely ever cried in front of anyone, softly did so now as he hugged his twin.

"It scared me Codes" Zack said sniffing.

"I know, it scared me too…I mean…I thought I was about to drown" Cody said shivering at the thought.

Zack pulled away from Cody and looked him in the eyes.

"You know if it had been real I _would_ have got you out, you know that right?" Zack said wiping his eyes.

"Yeah I know you would have" Cody said.

Zack shook himself, obviously trying to snap back into macho mode as fast as he could.

"Man, I hate nightmares!" he said standing up and walking to the porthole.

"Who doesn't" Cody replied.

A few moments went by with neither of them saying anything.

"Aww dude, check it out! Were coming up on Grand Bahama Island! I can see the lights in the distance!" Zack said suddenly sounding more upbeat.

Cody rushed over and looked. Then he groaned.

"The sun is starting to come up, look at the pale blue near the horizon, and I still feel like I was hit by a Mack truck" Cody said rubbing his temples.

Zack, who had forgotten about his sea sickness, suddenly remembered himself and groaned.

Both agreed it wasn't as bad as it had been, but it was still there.

"You think anyone will care if we spend today in our bunks" he said wandering back over to his bunk and flopping down.

"Probably…I guess we'll just have to try and get a few more hours in and then try and tough it out…we don't want to miss Grand Bahama Island…" Cody replied climbing back up in his bunk.

"I know…we'll sleep on the beach" Zack said.

"Good plan…see you in a few hours then" Cody said turning over.

"Okay…and hey Codes…" Zack said.

"Yeah?" Cody replied.

"Thanks, you know, for calming me down and stuff" Zack said.

"No problem…night" Cody said.

"Night…well, morning anyway" Zack said turning away from the porthole and covering his head to block out the lightening sky coming in from the porthole.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven: Fried**

_Poseidon_ anchored about a quarter of a mile off shore of Grand Bahama Island. Since the ship was so large, it could not come all the way to the docks. Passengers had to be ferried from the ship to the docks by island boats.

Zack, Cody, Carey, Bob, Mark, Max, and Barbara all met on the transfer deck to await their turn to board a ferry. The transfer deck was the closest deck to the waterline where it was easiest for the boats to dock with the ship and transfer the passengers. A ramp could be extended from _Poseidon_ to the docking boat which allowed people to walk at a very minimal incline from one vessel to the other. The deck was also used for passengers that wanted to go scuba diving or take jet skis out of the ship and onto the water.

After two 60 foot island boats had come and gone, a third one arrived and it was finally their turn to board. As they walked down the ramp to the boat Cody remarked at how clear the water was here. Where _Poseidon_ sat anchored, the water was deep and had a very dark sapphire look to it. Off towards the shallower waters near shore, they noted how it changed to the most vibrant aqua blue color they had ever seen.

"Wow" was all any of them could manage.

They made their way to the starboard side railing of the ferry. At first all they could see was the black wall of _Poseidon's_ port side, but as the ferry moved out and away from the massive ship, they could watch ahead of them as the island got closer. Exotic birds flew around overhead and the group even spotted some bottle-nosed dolphins racing along with the boat.

Barbara stood next to Cody who had his arm around her.

"Feeling better?" she asked.

"Better than I was last night…Zack, Bob, and I still feel a little queasy now and then and I have a slight headache, but it's all good" Cody replied.

"The Codester and I figure we'll just sleep off whatever's left of it on the beach!" Zack added.

"How about you Max, feeling better?" Zack asked.

"Same as you guys I guess…but I'm going to make myself go to the stores with Carey, you coming with us Barbara?" Max asked.

"Yeah, I'll go, but I'd like to hang out on the beach some too" Barbara replied.

"I think we should all plant ourselves on the beach and relax for a while…how often is it this nice in Boston?" Carey said.

"Sounds good to me" Max said.

"Yeah, me too" Mark said shouldering a bag containing his beach towel and a bottle of sunscreen. At the moment he was busy putting on his first layer of the white UV blocking cream.

"Whoa Mark, got a big enough bottle of sunscreen there?" Zack asked laughing a little.

"Laugh all you want…at the end of the day when you look like lobsters I'll…" Mark began.

"Still look like Casper" Bob finished for him.

They all laughed.

"…ha ha, very funny, no…I was gonna say that I'll be the one who is burn free" Mark said with a smirk.

The others thought about his words a moment before everyone except Zack grabbed for the bottle to apply their own layer.

"Wimps…you're not gonna get a tan wearing that stuff" Zack said.

"I dunno Zack, remember what happened at dad's cabin last…" Cody began in a worried tone.

"That was because I slept too long in the sun, that won't happen this time" Zack said.

"Okay, suit yourself" Mark said putting the bottle back in his bag.

They ferry docked and everyone disembarked. Locals eyed the tourists and the group could almost see the dollar signs in their eyes. Carey led them to the nearest public beach which just happened to be the best one on the island. It was crowded but they were able to find a nice spot near the center by some palms. Everyone spread out their towels and sat down.

"Would you look at that" Cody said.

All eyes turned out to sea and their breath seemed to be sucked right out of them in an instant. The view was amazing. The sky was as clear blue as the water and the sun was directly overhead. _Poseidon_ floated in the distance off to their left. Now that they could see the ship from an unobstructed vantage point, they could truly appreciate its size and beauty.

Cody and Barbara went to get smoothies for everyone with money Carey had given them. They returned a short while later and everyone settled in with their drinks, listening to the surf and the sounds of people playing near the water.

Soon, everyone was stretched out and soaking up the sun. Carey lay on her towel with Zack and Max laid out by her feet. Cody and Barbara were next to them and Mark and Bob were next to Carey.

"So guys, are you all ready for your classes to start day after tomorrow?" Carey asked them.

"I guess so…I've never been a big fan of school, but since its school on a giant ship, that makes it a little better" Zack said.

Mark and Bob agreed with Zack's assessment.

"We can't wait!" Cody said referring to himself and Barbara.

"Dork" Zack said eyeing him.

Cody flicked sand at Zack who proceeded to flick some back.

"Cut it out" Carey said ending their war before it had a chance to grow.

Sensing the tension between the twins and hating the silence, Max propped herself up on her elbow and cleared her throat.

"I'm looking forward to the basketball tryouts in P.E." she said.

"Yeah, that should be cool" Zack said.

"Where is our next stop from here Cody?" Bob asked.

"Rio De Janeiro in Brazil" Cody replied.

"What the heck is in Rio De Janeiro?" Zack asked looking over at Cody.

"Well, they have...umm...they have...you know I'm not quite sure. I guess we'll learn about it in school while were on the way" Cody replied.

"I know a few things..." Carey began "...they have this beach called the Copacabana and from what I've heard it would most likely put this one to shame" she said.

"Awsome! I bet its just loaded with hot ba..." Zack began to say before he met the stern gaze of Max.

"...nana trees! You know 'cause they are out in the hot sun!" he finished, desperately trying to backpedal.

Max just continued to glare at him before putting more sunscreen on and laying back down.

After a while everyone was quiet. Cody turned over towards Barbara and began drawing lines on her face with his finger, earning him giggles for a reaction. Zack too turned his attention to Max, simply looking at her as she lay on her back with her eyes closed. He picked up her hand and held it, entwining their fingers. To his delight, she let him. He didn't think she would after his stupid comment.

Carey watched from a propped up position. She suddenly felt a little melancholy as she looked on. She knew that in a few short years her boys would be men, graduating high school, going to college…and getting married.

_Could I be looking at my future daughter-in-laws?_ Carey thought.

She shook her head of the thought. Although she adored Max and Barbara and hoped they would be around for a long time, Carey knew that there was still plenty of time for potential breakups and new girls.

Carey turned her head to the right and observed Bob and Mark.

_And what of these two? Maybe they'll meet someone during the trip_ she thought.

The hours ticked by, the sun lowering slightly in the sky. Max and Barbara had turned over and back again several times now as if they were on a sun timer. Zack and Cody had followed suit, turning with the girls each time. Bob and Mark had gotten up to go swimming in the surf.

When Carey returned from a trip to the cabana for another drink, she looked ahead of her towards the group sunning themselves and noticed her oldest son's skin had taken on an odd shade…it was red.

_Oh crap!_ she thought to herself.

"Zack, honey, wake up please" Carey said shaking him.

_They may be a few years from being men but I'll be darned if I'm gonna quit the mother act now _she thought.

"Mom, ex-nay on the oney-hay!" he said looking next to him at Max.

"Orry-say…I think you'd better get covered or sit in the shade or something…I think you just got yourself fried" she said.

Zack looked down at his chest and pressed a hand down on it. When he pulled it away, a white hand print remained. Zack groaned.

"Aww man!" Zack said.

"Mark tried to tell you but you said sunscreen was for wimps" Carey said using a mock deep voice to exaggerate Zack's words.

Max and the others roused from their sleep and Max's eyes, upon seeing Zack, nearly popped out of her head.

"Whoa…it's lobster boy" Max said as she reached over and slapped Zack on his shoulder a few times.

"Ahhhh, OW!" he yelped.

Zack grabbed his towel and relocated to the shade of the nearby palms. There he sat pouting, gingerly poking his new burn.

"You girls ready to hit the shops?" Carey asked.

"Yeah, I think so" Max said yawning.

"I'm ready if you are" Barbara said standing and gathering up her towel.

As Carey and the girls made their way past Zack, Carey plopped Mark's sunscreen in the sand next to him and knelt down.

"Next time think of sunscreen as practical instead of wimpy" she said touching him on the nose to which he replied with a painful sounding hiss.

"We'll meet you at that dockside restaurant we passed on our way here at sundown" she said to the boys before she and the girls left.

Zack grabbed up the sunscreen and put it on in earnest before joining Cody and the others.

"So what do you guys want to do now?" he asked them.

"We could just wander around and see what there is to see" Cody suggested.

Everyone agreed and the four of them set off the see the sights.

At nightfall the island came alive with lights and music. Zack, Cody, Bob, and Mark sat waiting for the girls by the restaurant.

The restaurant was encircled with tiki torches and strings of festive lights. People sat outside under the stars amidst baby palm trees eating their meals. The waterfront was just on the other side of the restaurant. A warm breeze blew in off the ocean. Further down the dockside the guys could see the island boats going to and from _Poseidon._ The ship herself was a sight to see, looking like a floating chandelier hovering out in the pitch black ocean. Her lights cast down upon the surface of the water creating hundreds of sparkles.

"Quite a sight eh?" Cody said.

"You can say that again, looks like it belongs on a postcard" Bob said.

"It is on a postcard" Mark said holding up a postcard of a cruise ship anchored at night in roughly the same spot the _Poseidon _now sat. He had just purchased it from a nearby stand.

"Heh, how about that" Bob said taking it and holding it up in front of himself.

He whipped it down, then up, then back down a few times.

"Only difference is our ship is clearly bigger" Bob said handing it back to Mark as if to say 'you've not proven anything'.

"It'd be nice to share this lovely view with the ladies…where the heck are they?" Zack asked exasperated.

"Zack…its females…they're shopping, what did you expect?" Cody replied.

Zack nodded in a 'you have a point' kind of way.

"I wish we had more time to be here instead of a one night stopover" Mark said.

"Any more time out here and I'd have a blackened skeleton for a brother" Cody said chuckling.

"Funny…I learned my lesson about sunscreen alright, lay off it" Zack said.

Soon the girls arrived and they decided to have dinner at the restaurant. The money Carey made aboard the ship was more than enough to buy everyone's meal.

They sat right along the water and Zack, Cody, Bob, and Max were all pleasantly surprised to notice that they had their full appetites back.

When they had finished eating they decided to head down to the beach again where live island music was being performed around a bon fire. They all sat watching the dancers and musicians, even partaking in some of the dances themselves, well into the night. Then, exhausted, they made their way back down the dock to a ferry which took them back to _Poseidon_.

Carey said goodnight to everyone and got in an elevator to go to her suite. The rest of them got in another elevator and headed to deck 5. All had checked in with their cards upon boarding and had updated the system to let it know they were back on board. They had been allowed to stay out late because they were with Carey.

When they reached deck 5, they all kind of stood around in the area where the elevator had dropped them off not saying much.

"Um, Bob, Mark, I guess were just gonna walk the girls down by their door and…say goodnight there" Zack said.

At first Bob and Mark didn't get it. Then the light bulb came on in Bob's head and he pulled Mark along with him.

"Oh, yeah, okay…we'll see you guys in a bit then" he said as he and Mark disappeared down the hall towards the bow.

Zack and Cody walked with their respective girlfriends towards the stern until they neared the door where the twins couldn't pass, each brother walking in a V pattern away from the other as to have some privacy. When the two pairs were far enough away from the other, they each began their goodnights…

"Today was fun, sorry you got fried" Max said looking Zack in the eyes.

"Thanks, I'll be okay, I'm glad you had fun, and I'm sorry about the babes-on-the-copabanana beach comment...you're the only one for me" Zack said returning the stare.

"I think its pronounced copacabana, and you're forgiven" Max said giggling at Zack's mispronunciation then growing serious.

Slowly they closed the distance between them for a nice short kiss.

"I had a blast dancing with you on the beach tonight" Cody said as he locked eyes with Barbara.

"I did too, you're a great dancer" Barbara replied.

"Thanks, I try; I wouldn't even have attempted it if you hadn't been with me…until tomorrow then?" Cody said.

"Until tomorrow" she replied.

Cody leaned in and Barbara met him half way for a kiss.

They all said goodnight and the girls disappeared around the corner and through their door.

Zack and Cody began walking together towards the bow.

"What a great day" Cody said.

"You said it bro" Zack replied.

"I was just thinking how nice it is that we both have girlfriends at the same time so that one of us isn't feeling left out or jealous" Cody said.

"You'd be jealous if I had Max but you didn't have Barbara?" Zack asked.

"Well, yeah maybe, a little I guess" Cody said shrugging.

"It's probably what Bob and Mark feel like" Zack replied.

"Maybe we should set them up with someone" Cody said.

"I've been tryin' to do that for Bob for years…it ain't easy, and Mark, he doesn't need help…remember that model he had for a girlfriend before we left?..." Zack said and Cody nodded before Zack continued "…how does he do that?" he finished.

"I don't know, it really _is_ a mystery…but you'll find someone for Bob, I have faith in you" Cody said patting his twin on the shoulder as they walked.

"Aaaah, easy, the shoulder!" Zack hissed.

Cody pulled his hand back as if he'd just touched fire.

"Sorry, forgot" Cody said.

They passed through their door into the boys section, got their night stuff from their cabin and went to the shower room. Even though they showered in different areas of the room, Cody could still hear Zack's shriek of pain as the hot water hit his burn.

"You okay bro?" Cody yelled across the room to him.

"Using big words like you often do I can safely say that after a brief initial assessment of this shower's high temperature I have decided that it should be much lower!" Zack shouted back.

"I'm impressed, you do learn things by listening to me" Cody said laughing.

"Shut up" Zack said also cracking up.

Once they were finally ready for bed the twins collapsed in their respective bunks with Zack "ooo"ing and "oww"ing the whole time. Cody sympathized with his brother's pain, knowing how horrible burns felt, but his sleepiness soon overcame the noises of Zack's misery coming from beneath him and he fell into a deep sleep.

At some point during the night, _Poseidon's_ great engines came to life and startled Cody out of his sleep. Cody looked over the side of the bunk, expecting to see Zack still wide awake in pain. To his surprise and relief Cody instead saw his brother was fast asleep and Cody knew no sound would pull him out of it. Zack, he knew, could sleep through a tornado. Cody smiled as he looked over the side a few moments more before turning over and falling back asleep himself.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight: The Horn**

The ship had arrived in Rio de Janeiro Brazil about a week after leaving the Bahamas and the students had taken a "field trip" to all the major sights in the city as well as more R&R on Rio's famous beaches, Copacabana and Ipanema. Zack had particularly enjoyed visiting the Maracana, a soccer stadium which was once the largest in the world. Cody, meanwhile, had been strangely moved by the gigantic statue of Christ the Redeemer atop Corcovado Mountain. The group had taken a tram up to the summit. It reminded them of enclosed ski lifts, suspending them high above the ground by thick cables. The tram ride and subsequent landing at the summit had treated all of them with spectacular views of the city, beaches, and ocean below. They had listened to Samba music at one of Rio's famous carnivals and dined on feijoada, a black bean stew with chunks of sausage, pork, and beef. Chef Paulo, who had come ashore with the Martins and their friends, had tried it and swore to learn how to prepare in back on board. Tracking down the recipe, however, proved more difficult than the chef had bargained for with his thick Italian accent clashing with the Brazilian tongue.

In Buenos Aires Argentina, the "field trip" had taken the students to sights such as Caminito Pedestrian Street in La Boca, a tourism hot spot chocked full of arts and crafts. Max, Barbara, and Carey (who volunteered as a chaperone for the students during their shore time) had a field day wandering up and down the street looking at all the items. The guys had yet another stadium, the La Bombonera, to tour. The students had been required to take Tango lessons as part of their Argentina unit and the last night of their stopover in Buenos Aires had included a dance to showcase what they had learned. Fortunately, Mark and Bob had found some girls to partner with for the dance and, unlike Zack and Cody once upon a time, did not have to dance with each other. They had all had a blast dancing late into the night.

The following day found the _Poseidon_ sailing at full speed southwest along the southern Argentine coast. This part of the world was coming into their summer months and everyone on deck noticed the building heat and humidity.

Down on Deck 5, classes were going on normally. It hadn't taken the students long to get used to their schedules and routines. It seemed just like school on land except that when it was over, instead of having to take a bus or a car to get home or go to the mall, all you had to do was go through a set of doors or go to another deck.

Cody and Barbara strolled along through Deck 4, or the "mall deck" as it was known, hand in hand. Cody, like most guys, didn't like shopping. He did it anyway to please Barbara who suddenly squealed and hauled him into yet another clothing store.

"Didn't you see enough clothes in Buenos Aires?" Cody asked her.

"A woman never sees enough clothes" Barbara replied.

Cody sighed and attempted to look interested in the articles surrounding him on racks. This became an instant failure as he noticed they were all female clothes. Barbara picked out this thing and the next, holding it up so that Cody could say if he liked it or not…which he never said he didn't like something because he knew better than that.

Next they headed for the mall's food court which was by far fancier than any food court in any other mall he'd ever been in. It had every type of restaurant you could want. Even the fast food chains had put restaurants aboard at Mr. Tipton's request. He had wanted every passenger's (or student's) possible needs away from land met and so it was done. Cody and Barbara settled on an Asian food vendor and sat down to eat. It seemed that Cody couldn't get enough Asian cuisine which was fine for Barbara, who, being Asian herself ate it a lot.

"You never get tired of Asian food do you?" Barbara asked him.

"Nope, I guess my taste in food is the same as my taste in women" he said winking at her.

Barbara blushed.

"I wonder where the others are." Barbara said.

"Well, I don't know where Bob and Mark are but Zack and Max are on Deck 11. You know they formed that basketball team with some other students and practice is going on now" Cody replied.

"You didn't want to be on the team?" she asked.

A very brief look of sadness flashed in Cody's eyes, barely long enough to be detected before Cody smiled and shook his head.

"No, I wasn't asked to, it's no big deal though…you know I stink at sports" Cody replied taking another bite of food.

"Hey, you're not that bad at basketball" Barbara protested, secretly calling Zack a bad name in her head for blowing off his twin.

"Yeah right, last time I played, I went to make a basket and threw the ball straight up in the air which then came down and smacked me in the head" Cody replied.

"Oh yeah I remember that…laid you right out too…" Barbara said.

The two were silent as they remembered the debacle.

"Still, Zack should have at least asked you if you wanted to be on the team" she said.

Cody didn't say anything. He just kind of looked down and took a bite of more food.

"You two okay?" Barbara asked.

Cody looked up.

"Yeah…sure, I guess so…I mean, I think so anyway…" he said looking uncomfortable.

Barbara had known Cody long enough to read him pretty well and since bringing up Zack, Cody's mood had shifted considerably. Something was troubling him and she wanted to know what it was.

The look she was giving Cody told him exactly that and Cody, who could also read Barbara pretty well, decided to cave and open up.

"It's only been about a month and I can already see him doing exactly what I was afraid he was going to do" Cody began.

"Which is?" Barbara asked, prodding him.

"He's made all kinds of new friends and I'm becoming just an afterthought…I mean, I didn't think the basketball thing bothered me until we started talking about it" Cody replied.

"You've made friends too" Barbara said.

"Yeah I know…it's just…I don't know, maybe I'm getting a head start on all that separation anxiety stuff I've read about twins having as they grow up. Zack and I have always done things together. Sure, we've had other friends and done our own things, but the majority of our time is spent doing things together and whenever I feel like he's blowing me off or ignoring me…it just makes me…" Cody said.

"Afraid" Barbara said.

This word surprised Cody; he hadn't thought to say that.

"Afraid?" he asked.

"Yes, I think you're afraid that the more people in each of your lives and the more time you spend with them will weaken the bond you have until…until suddenly it vanishes and is no more" she replied.

Cody was silent, pondering this.

"Cody, you need to realize that, no matter how many friends either of you gain or how much time your apart…the two of you will always be twins and nothing can ever change that" Barbara added.

Cody nodded and then smiled a huge smile at her.

"What?" she asked smiling back.

"I think you are going to make a great psychologist" he said.

She laughed at that.

"Maybe so, thank you" she said.

He took her hand across the table.

"No, thank you" Cody replied.

"Besides, how can it be separation anxiety? It's not like Zack is back in Boston or on another ship" Barbara said.

"Maybe not today…but someday…" Cody replied looking wistful and distant again.

_Flashback…_

_Cody was sitting on a rocking chair on the porch of his math camp cabin with Tapeworm and Warren. The three were laughing and joking about math equations when out of nowhere Zack comes up to the cabin followed by London, Maddie, and Muriel._

"_Hey Cody" Zack said. _

"_Zack! How'd you guys get up here?" Cody asked coming down off the porch._

"_I was abducted" Maddie said._

"_And I drove!" London added._

"_Oh please, if I hadn't taken the wheel we'd still be in the hotel parking lot" Muriel said._

_Tapeworm and Warren got up and approached the group, excited that females had shown up at the camp. Warren even hit on Maddie who promptly shot him down._

"_Well, what's up?" Cody asked Zack. _

"_We're here to break you out, pack your stuff" Zack replied._

"_Why?" Cody asked_

"_I knew you were having a lousy time, I got your twin telepathy call" Zack said._

"_Well it must have been your other twin because I'm having a great time and I'm really learning a lot" Cody said._

"_Uh oh, it's worse than I thought" Zack said to himself._

"_Uh, guys, would you mind if I talked to Zack in private for a minute" Cody asked the others who then moved away. _

_Cody led Zack up the steps and onto the porch of the cabin. Zack sat down on a box and Cody stood next to him._

"_You know what my twin telepathy is telling me? You missed me" Cody said._

_Cody paused before doing a little dance and saying "you missed me" a few times._

"_Did not!" Zack retorted standing up quickly to face Cody._

"_Did so!" Cody shot back._

"_Did not…it was mom that missed you, she just sits on the sofa looking at your baby picture crying and eating ice cream with a shovel" Zack said._

"_Oh, that's funny, because she called me tonight after dinner, and she bragged about how well she was doing on her diet" Cody said_

"_Well she lied" Zack replied._

"_No, you lied" Cody said before launching back into his dance and singing "you missed me" again a few more times._

_Zack scratched his head turning around._

_Cody suddenly stopped dancing, noticing something sticking out of Zack's backpack. It was blankie, his equivalent of a stuffed animal._

"_Is that blankie!" Cody exclaimed pulling it out of the backpack._

"_Yeah, I thought you might miss it" Zack said turning back around to face his brother._

"_I did, thanks!" Cody said._

_Zack got slightly angry._

"_So you miss a lousy blanket but not your twin brother! Zack said._

_Cody frowned a little sitting down in the rocking chair. Zack sat down in the chair next to him._

"_Okay, maybe I missed you a little, but not enough to come home early" Cody said._

_Zack looked down._

"_Oh, okay, I understand" he said._

"_You know, some day we actually will be apart" Cody said._

"_Well, sure, when you're a math professor and I'm a race car driver slash secret agent" Zack replied._

"_I'll be home in six days, think you can make it?" Cody said seriously._

"_Sure…heck, if London's driving we won't even be home for six days…and if Muriel's driving…I'm gonna need blankie" Zack said playfully swiping the blanket back from Cody. _

Cody snapped out of his memory of Zack coming to "rescue" him from math camp three years before and returned his attention back to Barbara who, fortunately, had been silently eating while he'd been remembering.

"You're right, maybe someday you will be apart…so you need to make this time count…you know what you two need…you need to sign up for something together, something you both like to do" Barbara suggested.

"Like what?" Cody asked.

"I don't know, he's your twin" Barbara replied.

Cody thought for a minute and then suddenly snapped his fingers.

"I got it! Fencing!" he said.

"Fencing?" Barbara asked.

"Yeah, remember up on deck our first day out…Zack and I went on about how we used to love to play sword fighting?" Cody asked.

"Oh yeah…but if I recall, it wasn't 'we used to like' it was 'we still' like" Barbara said laughing.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, I think he'll go for it" Cody said.

"Well, let's finish eating and then you can go ask him" Barbara said.

"What about shopping together?" Cody asked even though every fiber of his being hated himself for doing it.

"I think I can manage on my own for a while" Barbara said.

Cody smiled; they finished eating and parted ways.

Cody headed towards the elevators that would take him down to Deck 11 when he noticed the ship shudder slightly under his feet. He changed direction and went to the nearest window. The weather had changed drastically in a short period of time. Cody estimated the waves to be about 30 feet high.

Suddenly a tone emitted from the ship wide PA system…

"_Ladies and Gentlemen may I have your attention please, this is Captain Bradford…you may have noticed the weather has worsened outside…there is no need to be alarmed…this type of weather is expected as we near Cape Horn. However, I would like to ask that all passengers remain inside the ship while we round the Cape…my officers will inform you as soon as it's safe to venture back on deck. Sorry for the inconvenience and thank you" _

The ship bucked again, harder than she had at any time during their first night out when sea sickness had spread like wildfire. By now, Cody was used to the occasional tossing of the ship and it didn't bother him. He wanted to talk to Zack, but his curiosity to watch as they rounded what sailors ominously referred to as "the Horn" became overpowering. Cape Horn was notorious for having bad weather which had been known to sink ships in the past. Cody knew that, if _Poseidon_ had been smaller, they would have opted for the safer Straits of Magellan, but her sheer size that had prevented her from using the Panama Canal also prevented her from using that short cut as well.

He decided to head to the forward restaurant on deck 2 (where Zack's phone had ended up on the day of their departure). He knew that from the restaurant's enormous bow facing, floor-to-ceiling windows that he would have a great view of the ship's progress around the Cape. He updated the student location system, including a message for Zack saying he should come up and see it too (although he doubted Zack would care, especially if practice was not yet over) and headed off.

When he arrived he noticed many other passengers had had the same idea. Everyone watched from the windows as heavy rain began to pelt the ship and the southernmost tip of South America slid by off to their right. _Posiedon_ moved slowly, the waves increased in size. They were now as close as they were going to get to Antarctica.

As the waves grew to around 40 feet and _Poseidon_ continued her turn, the ship began to heel over towards her left side, slightly at first, and then a little more. Cody had to grab a table to steady himself. It seemed as if the ship was just going to continue rolling over and he felt a brief rush of adrenaline and fear. Still more the great ship rolled, to 10, 15, and then 20 degrees. Cody suddenly wondered if this moment was the reason he had been having such foreboding feelings about the voyage. What if she rolled over completely? He pushed that thought out of his head and finally the ship began to right itself.

The rain continued to pour and the waves stayed high but the captain came on the PA to let everyone know that they had successfully made the turn around the Cape and were now headed into the waves. There would be no more rolling. Cody was relieved but found he had to sit down in order to let himself calm down. He sat for what seemed to him like only a few minutes but in reality was much longer, lost in his thoughts of what if…

_What if we had gone over?_ He thought with a shudder.

Suddenly someone walked up behind him and put their hands on his shoulders making him jump.

"Whoa, easy bro" Zack said.

"Zack, you scared me" Cody said.

"You okay, you look pale as a sheet" Zack replied.

"That turn, just kind of freaked me out a little" Cody said

"Oh you mean how we tipped like that? I thought it was wild! Max and I were tossed to the side of the hallway, which I don't mind saying I enjoyed because I fell into her right, and…" Zack began babbling.

"I get the picture" Cody said.

The ship was rattled by yet another oncoming wave, Zack sat down across from his brother.

"Where is Max anyway?" Cody asked.

"She went to find Barbara on Deck 4" Zack replied.

"I'm glad you're here alone anyway…I've been wanting to talk to you about something that's been bugging me" Cody said.

"What's up?" Zack asked giving Cody his complete attention.

Cody was about to open up and tell Zack how he felt…like he had with Barbara…but after a few seconds of silence, he lost his nerve. He was afraid Zack would just tease him for being overly sensitive.

Cody sighed.

"Never mind…it's nothing…" he said.

Zack just stared at his twin. He knew it wasn't "nothing."

"You sure?" Zack asked.

"Yeah…it's nothing really, but I do have an idea…something we could maybe do" Cody said hoping to change the subject.

"Ok" Zack said deciding, for the moment, not to push his brother to tell him what was bothering him and waiting for him to continue.

"I was thinking, maybe we could do something together…like an elective we could both take at the same time…" Cody said hoping Zack would be game.

"Sure, that'd be cool, I need another elective. What did you have in mind?" Zack asked.

"Remember our first day out I mentioned one of the electives was fencing?" Cody asked with a grin.

Zack grinned back.

"Yeah, I remember" he said.

"Well, what do you think?" Cody asked.

"I think I'm gonna kick your sorry little butt at it!" he said.

"You're on!" Cody said and they hurried off to sign up and Cody soon forgot all about the turn and the roll that had made him so ill at ease.


	9. Chapter 9

**AN: This chapter is kind of like the "calm before the storm" chapter. I don't feel its my strongest chapter by any means but hopefully you'll still like it. It is a filler chapter so it doesn't have a lot of action and jumps around quite quickly. It mainly details the characters during their last peaceful moments during the trip. Enjoy!**

**Chapter Nine: Vibes**

Two months later…

The late evening sun was dipping lower in the sky as two figures dressed in white fencing clothes dueled back and forth across the forecastle deck with their foils as a third figure watched from the railing. When one of them would begin to gain ground on the other, the other would step their game up a notch and battle back, retaking the ground they had lost. They seemed very evenly matched. Eventually, one of them lunged and their foil stuck into the shirt of the other one.

"Well done Cody! Well done indeed" The man at the railing said.

Cody pulled off his mask revealing a red face and soaked hair. He smiled at his instructor.

"Thanks" he said sheepishly.

Zack ripped off his mask and threw it down frustrated.

"Lucky move! I had you for sure!" Zack said.

"It's called skill, not luck" Cody replied.

Zack was about to lash back but their instructor, Mr. Zahn, intervened.

"Boys, you both did very well…it is my opinion after watching you two spar over the last few months that you are each as equally skilled as the other. Having said that, Zack…you know that in athletics, when two evenly matched players face off…someone still eventually looses. Perhaps you will win the next one" Mr. Zahn said picking up Zack's mask and handing it to him.

Zack and Cody both liked the way Mr. Zahn talked. He spoke and acted more like an old fashioned martial arts sensei from Japan then he did an SAS PE teacher. Cody had noticed that, because of this laid back style of teaching; Mr. Zahn was able to calm Zack down quickly when he became frustrated.

"Okay, were done for the night, go hit the showers" Mr. Zahn said turning the twins loose.

As Zack and Cody made their way to deck 5 carrying their equipment, neither of them spoke. It became too much for Cody.

"Zack…are you mad at me?" he asked.

"Not mad at _you_, I just don't like loosing, you know that" Zack said as they descended some stairs.

"Are you sure, 'cause I've been getting this vibe lately, like your mad at everyone…or just me…I can start loosing more if it'll make you happier" Cody said.

Zack finally smiled and laughed.

"Ha! I don't think so _little_ brother, I'm just going to have to step up my game some more so you _can't_ beat me" he said.

"You can try" Cody said feeling glad he had managed to cheer his brother up.

Although sharing his feelings was something Zack rarely did, he felt he owed it to Cody to explain why he'd been acting a bit more moody than usual.

"I'm sorry if I've been kind of a jerk lately, I've just had a lot on my mind…Max and I had a small tiff in Pago Pago and I'm trying to think of ways to fix it…" Zack said.

"You never told me you and Max had a fight" Cody said surprised.

"Yeah, well, I didn't really want you to know…cause you like to try and fix things for me and I wanted to handle this myself" Zack said.

Cody's eyes fell slightly, it wasn't like Zack to keep anything from his twin.

"Oh" he said quietly and moved off to a shower stall and turned on the water. Moments later, Zack got in a nearby stall and turned his shower on too.

As they so often seemed to do to each other, Zack seemed to read Cody's mind and quickly tried to mend any hurt feelings.

"Look buddy, it's not that I don't appreciate it when you try to help, and I know we never keep anything from each other but…with Max and me…I don't know, it's different…" Zack stammered.

"How so?" Cody said, raising his voice slightly so it could reach Zack several feet away over the noise of the water.

"Well, think about it...would you want to share with me everything you and Barbara say and do because you felt you had to?" Zack asked.

"No, I guess not…" Cody said.

Hearing the downcast tone in Cody's voice suddenly made Zack feel guilty about not telling him about his and Max's spat sooner, despite having just said he'd rather keep their affairs to himself.

_Why's he so upset, it's not like I withheld something super important from him…and now that I think of it he's been acting strange ever since we rounded the Horn…I'd better get to the bottom of it _Zack thought.

Once they were done drying and dressing in their stalls, they met back in the main section of the locker room to put away their fencing gear.

"Cody, I'm getting a vibe of my own…have been for a few months now. I can tell something big is bugging you…and don't try and tell me I'm wrong because you can't fool me…" Zack said in a serious tone that he rarely used.

"What do you mean?" Cody asked suddenly acting fidgety and nervous.

"Look, not telling you something about me and Max is one thing, but you not telling me something that's been bugging you for 2 months…that's different" Zack replied.

For once, Cody, the sensitive wears-his-feelings-on-his-sleeve type, felt backed into a corner and he clamed up.

"Do I have to tell you right now" Cody asked in a soft voice, his eyes pleading with his brother not to push it at that moment.

Naturally, Zack read that immediately and nodded his head.

"No, but soon okay?" Zack said.

Cody nodded a yes back.

They finished cleaning up then left the locker room for the dinner hall.

Over the few months they'd been at sea Cody had made it a point to see every part of the ship. He had gotten to know the chief engineer, Harold Linville, who Cody discovered was actually a distant cousin of Arwin's. Harold, through Cody's engineering SAS class, had shown him and his fellow peers where the various systems on the ship were housed, what they did, and even how to operate some of them. Cody, being much more interested in all of it than the rest of the class, often used his free time to tag along with the barrel-chested, grey haired Harold as the engineer made his daily rounds.

Because of this, after dinner that evening, Cody set off to find Harold. He updated the student tracking system and headed down to the lower decks.

He found Harold strolling through Deck 12 headed for the entrance to the engineering decks below.

"Ah, Cody, your just in time, I was just about to inspect the ballast tank system…seems the closer we get to Australia the heavier the chop is going to get so we'd better be sure we can level her out if we need to…care to join me?" Harold said.

"Sure!" Cody said.

They began descending the crew only stairs to the first of three engineering decks. Harold noticed that Cody was not as chatty as he usually was.

"Something wrong?" Harold asked.

"My brother…he knows I'm upset about something and he wants me to tell him about it" Cody said.

"And you don't want to?" Harold asked.

"No, not about something as stupid as this" Cody replied.

"People tell me I'm a good listener, you want to tell me?" asked.

"You'd probably think it's just as lame as he would" Cody said.

"You insult my good nature young man…I'd never do such a thing!" Harold said.

Cody smiled at Harold's mock anger, thought about it for a moment, then figured _what the hey._

"I'm afraid of the future" Cody said.

"The future?" Harold asked puzzled.

"See, it's always been him and me…we do everything together…but I know someday it's not going to be like that" Cody said.

"I see…well Cody, that is certainly not a stupid thing to be upset about. It's a legitimate fear…you're wondering what life is going to be like when you each go your own ways and have your own lives…it scares you because its something that has never been a factor as of yet…am I right?" Harold said.

"Exactly…" Cody said and then chuckled "…you said people say you're a good listener, do they also say you may have missed your calling as a psychologist?" Cody said.

Harold burst out laughing.

"In fact, some do say that yes!" he said.

The mood turned serious again as they neared the first inspection site.

"I know how it is to be close to your siblings. I may not have had a twin but I grew up the youngest of three brothers. I always wanted to be around them, I admired them, looked up to them. We got along okay most of the time. Of course there were those inevitable times when they treated me like a pest they wanted to be rid of…but overall we had a loving, close relationship" Harold replied.

Harold bent down low with Cody to look at some computer read outs from the ballast system. They were silent for a few moments before Harold spoke again.

"What is it that you are most afraid of if you two go your separate ways?" he asked.

"Well, twins, as you may know, supposedly have the closest bond any two people can have…and we do…and I guess I'm afraid that…" Cody began but faltered.

"You're afraid living life apart will cause the bond to break." Harold finished for him.

"Well no, I don't think anything could break it…but…change it…make it weaker" Cody said.

"Well, I'm no expert, even if I inadvertently sound like one, but I would say pretty confidently that you two are going to be fine as you grow older. Yes, some things will change, but I can tell you that my brothers and I are still close, even though they have their own lives and families and live in different parts of the world and I'm here on _Poseidon_. Our bond hasn't weakened, if anything I'd say its as strong as ever, but it has changed. If I had to use a word to describe how its changed I guess I'd say its...matured" Harold said.

"Matured?" Cody asked.

"Yeah, it grew as we grew, changed but didn't go away...does that make any sense?" Harold asked.

"A little" Cody said.

"It'll all work out Cody you'll see...there's no use fretin' about it. You just gotta make the most of each day you get to spend together" Harold said giving Cody a pat on the shoulder.

The way Harold spoke made it so Cody couldn't help but believe it. Aside from being, in Cody's opinion, the best chief engineer in the world, Harold was proving to indeed be a very good listener and advise giver.

The two of them then turned their attention fully to the ballast system and Cody soaked up even more information on the ship he now called home. He decided that he wouldn't worry about him and Zack anymore and just let the future be what it was going to be.

_Poseidon_ reached Sydney during the overnight hours. Harold had been right, a departing storm system had made it necessary for the ship to take on ballast as it neared the island nation.

Sydney had one of the few docks that was big enough to accommodate _Poseidon_ so when Zack and Cody woke up in the morning they were surprised to look out their porthole and see that they were in a harbor tied up to a dock. They would not need the ferries as they had in Pago Pago and New Zealand.

At breakfast, Cody entered the hall with a smile and a spring in his step that had been missing for far too long. The talk with Harold had been just what he needed but Cody knew in the back of his mind that he'd eventually have to talk with Zack himself about it.

He sat with Barbara, Max, Zack, Bob, and Mark who all seemed to take notice of his peppiness.

"Someone looks happy this morning" Max observed.

"Well, why not, were in Australia, and it looks like a great day for touring yet another funducational locale with all my friends" Cody said.

The others raised an eyebrow at Cody's choice of words but Zack seemed to have an almost relieved look as he seemed to sense his brother was somewhat back to normal.

As the mealtime came to an end the tables were cleared and the SAS students lined up by home room teacher to await disembarking and field trip instructions for Sydney. By now everyone knew the drill.

Throughout the day they would periodically meet back at the ship to switch classes and head off for another site in a different class.

Cody and Barbara's orchestra class was headed to the Sydney Opera House while Zack, Max, Mark, and Bob's history class was headed to the Australian National Maritime museum. Later, Zack and Cody, in their shared botany class, toured Sydney's Chinese Gardens.

Cody was mesmerized by the garden's beauty. As he and his brother walked through, completing the tasks on their assignment sheet, Cody would excitedly chatter about this plant and that while Zack found each and every bench along the way to sit on.

"Isn't this place awesome!?" Cody asked, sitting next to Zack and marking things on both their sheets.

Zack had to admit that the gardens were truly spectacular but he had his mind on what still awaited him that day.

"It's nice, but are we almost done? My next class is going to Fox Studios where they filmed _Mission Impossible 2 and Superman Returns_!" Zack said.

"Yeah, we just have three more species of plants to find" Cody said.

"Good" Zack said and they headed off again.

When the school day had ended and the students got their free time to explore Sydney, Cody decided he wanted to take Barbara back to the gardens.

The two walked hand in hand past the Teahouse down the narrow paved paths.

Although Barbara was actually Japanese, she still appreciated and admired the ornate Asian style of the gardens. They walked under a Chinese styled gazebo and stood at the railing looking out over a small pool of water in the center of the gardens. There, surrounded by lush foliage, the tranquility of the gardens relaxed them and they shared a kiss.

Across town, Zack and Max decided to do the bridge climb across the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It proved to be quite the exercise as they were given climbing gear and were led, along with other tourists, to the summit of the bridge and back down. At the top, where they could see the entire skyline of the city, Zack pulled some roses out from under his shirt and gear and finally managed to get Max to forgive him from their squabble and allowed Zack to give her a quick peck on the lips.

Bob and Mark, meanwhile, were still without a girlfriend of their own and walked along the shores of Sydney Harbour seeing some of the old forts there.

"You know, why is it Zack and Cody each have a girl and we don't?" Bob asked.

"Well, I do have a girl, she's just not here" Mark replied.

"You mean that ditzy model who thought the twin's dad was an actual Viking?" Bob said.

"Yeah, so?" Mark said assuming a defensive posture.

Bob sighed and leaned back against the wall of the fort they were touring. Just then a couple of SAS students walked by..._female_ SAS students. Bob saw an opportunity and went for it.

"Hey ladies, nice evening for sightseeing eh?" Bob said to them as they passed.

"Yeah, wanna sightsee with us!?" Mark asked.

The girls agreed to Mark and Bob's astonishment and walked off with them arm in arm.

_Finally!_ They both thought.

That night Carey and the gang, including Bob and Mark's new friends, had dinner at the top of the Sydney Tower. The buffet was just what Zack needed after the long day of walking and climbing the bridge with Max.

After dinner they all walked out on the Skywalk platform and got an unparalleled 360 degree view of the city, its lights sparking like diamonds below.

"Look there's the ship!" Cody said spotting it down at the dock as he and Barbara huddled together in the slight breeze.

Everyone was at peace and content as they took in the sights. What they didn't know was that it would be one of the last tranquil moments of their trip.

On the bridge of _Poseidon_, Captain Bradford was sitting in his command chair sipping a cup of coffee when his communications officer entered carrying a piece of paper.

"Thought you might like to see this report sir, from the seismic station in the Philippines" the officer said.

"Thank you" Bradford said and began reading as the officer returned to his post.

_Minimal seismic activity being detected in the region, at this time no cause for alarm for land or sea interests but ships traversing the shallows to the west of the Philippines should monitor the situation in case of larger quakes which could lead to the possibility of rouge waves..._

Captain Bradford set the message on the desk before him and continued sipping his coffee. He decided he would have his communications officer keep in close contact with the seismic station but that he wouldn't worry too much about it.

As the rest of the SAS students and other passengers returned to the ship by 11pm he got his ship ready to leave port for the journey to Hong Kong.


	10. Chapter 10

**AN: This is another filler chapter but it has some action in it I think you will like. There is also some sentimental brotherly love stuff that I hope doesn't come across to sappy. It's what I feel they would really say to each other. Anyway, enjoy!**

**Chapter Ten: Gemini**

**Location: 819 nautical miles WNW of Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea in the Arafura Sea.**

**Date: December 26th**

A damp dreary day greeted the passengers and crew of _Poseidon_ for the day after Christmas as she cruised at full speed through the Arafura Sea. A light mist fell from the sky, making everyone stay inside.

Cody sat in his room reading his textbook and occasionally glancing out his porthole at the soupy weather outside. With the ship soon to be entering the region containing countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, and the Philippines, his AP history class's Asian culture section was in full gear. Despite it being roughly noon, he had to have the lights on in his cabin as there simply wasn't enough sunlight making it in. It was the kind of day you just wanted to sleep in, and because it was Saturday he very well could have if it wasn't for all the studying he had to do.

Zack knocked at the door suddenly and then, without waiting for an answer, came bursting in excitedly and Cody knew in a split second that his study time had probably just come to an abrupt end.

"Dude guess what!? Max just signed us all up for the New Year's Eve teen dance planning committee!" Zack said.

"She did? I don't remember volunteering" Cody replied.

"Well, we just assumed you'd want to, remember when you got to be class president?…you love to plan stuff" Zack said.

"True, but this AP stuff is really bogging me down…and it would have been nice to have been asked, you know what assuming makes right?" Cody said.

"Yeah, yeah, an as-out-of-you-and-me whatever…it'll be cool, just like when we ran the night club at the Tipton!" Zack said brushing off Cody's schoolwork concerns like he'd not even heard them.

Truth be told, Cody was excited to hear he'd been put on the committee but he really did have a lot of work to do. Seeing how excited Zack was, however, caused Cody to give in.

"Well, I guess I'm signed up now so I don't have much of a choice…okay I'm in…I'll just have to stay up late with this schoolwork" Cody said.

"Great!" Zack said beaming.

Then there was another knock at the door.

"Come in" the twins said in unison.

The door opened and Carey walked in.

"Hi guys, I just came to…holy cow open that porthole it smells like teen spirit exploded in here!" she said waving a hand in front of herself.

"Blame him…he doesn't bathe" Cody said.

"Uh, mom, wha…what are you doing here!?" Zack said looking behind her to the hallway to see if any of the other students saw their _mother_ in their room. It was one of the rules they'd set earlier that she was never to come to deck 5.

"Sorry Zack, I had to come, you guys weren't responding to my IM's…I was wondering if one or both of you could attend the adult party in the main ballroom and help me out with my show. Now before you say no, just hear me out…you could bring the girls and you'd still get a chance to dance and pig out and all that" Carey said.

"Mom! We're both on the planning committee for the teen dance!" Zack protested.

"Well, any chance you could bounce back and forth between the two dances?" Carey asked.

Cody saw his vision of a perfect grade point explode in his face. He knew Zack would never volunteer to work both parties.

"I suppose I could do that mom" Cody said.

"Great honey! I wouldn't ask you to but there's going to be a lot of lighting and sound work, which I'll show you how to do of course, and I just couldn't find any of the other staff that could free up time to do it, thank you!" Carey said kissing the top of his head.

"There will be big gaps of time for you to be at the teen dance I promise, I'm sharing stage time with a singer friend of the Captain's by the name of 'Gloria' who will be singing at midnight which will be nice cause I won't have to…" Carey rambled on as the boys just nodded.

She turned to leave.

"Well, I won't embarrass my little men anymore…but answer the IM's, and Cody…spray something in here even if it's not your fault, and Zack…bathe" Carey said.

"Yes mother" they said in unison as she left.

The door closed and Cody sagged.

"Great, I went from doing nothing but partying on New Year's to working two dances" he said.

"Well, if you didn't try so hard all the time for the favorite twin-of-the-year award, you wouldn't get yourself into these kinds of fixes" Zack said.

"Somebody has to show appreciation and willingness to help towards mom, you sure never do!" Cody said getting defensive.

"Okay, look, we'll both work both parties, will that make you happy?" Zack asked.

Cody was too busy picking his jaw up off the floor to respond.

_Did he just volunteer to help me with both parties? My brother? Zack Martin?_ Cody thought.

"What? I can show willingness to help too sometimes" Zack said.

_Harold said our bond would mature…maybe Zack maturing is the first sign_ Cody thought.

"Thanks Zack, that's really nice of you not to stick me with the whole thing" Cody said.

"What are brothers for?" Zack said smiling.

"Now come on, we have to get down to the dance club to start planning with the others" he said and they turned and left their cabin.

**Location: 291 Nautical Miles SE of Singapore, Malaysia entering the South China Sea**

**Date: December 28th**

They had gone with a beach party theme, turning the entire teen dance club, located slightly aft of the center of the ship on deck 7, into what looked like a picturesque tropical paradise.

"Okay, we got the fake palm trees, the green rope lights, the tiki torches, and all the streamers you could ever want" Zack read aloud from the checklist that Max was marking off as he named each item.

"Now remember Barbara, no sugary drinks after nine…we don't want to have to send you to rehab like last time" Cody joked.

"Oh don't worry, after that night I ached in places I didn't even know could ache" Barbara replied.

"Something is missing" Max said eying the large room from a far wall.

"Well, we were pretty limited to what all we could set up in here…we don't want to take up too much room…and you should have heard the staff laughing when Zack asked them if we could cover the floor in real sand" Cody said.

"Hey, I thought it was a reasonable request" Zack said.

"Uh huh" Cody replied rolling his eyes.

Something in Cody's pocket beeped.

"Oh shoot, I'm supposed to head upstairs now for sound rehearsal in the main ballroom" Cody said getting up to leave.

"Let her show you one thing and then when its time for her to show you something else to do come get me and we'll switch" Zack said as he worked with Bob tightening down some of the rope lights along the "pop bar"

"Will do, later guys" Cody said heading off.

Cody walked a ways through the corridors of deck 7 when he was suddenly struck from behind and knocked to the floor.

"Well, well, if it isn't the clone sister" Russell menaced above Cody.

Cody was snatched off the floor by his shirt collar and dragged into an alcove where Russell could pummel him without being seen. Russell slammed Cody against a wall in the alcove.

"I got detention again because of you Martin!" Russell growled.

"You always get detention, what does it matter if I sent you there!?" Cody said trying to free himself.

Russell cocked back and slammed Cody in the stomach with his fist.

The wind rushed out of Cody's lungs and he coughed and doubled over but Russell slammed him back upright against the wall.

"No backtalk little clone girl, I'm going to enjoy this" Russell said and slammed Cody's head back against the wall.

Cody dropped but this time he tried to kick out at Russell, to sweep the bully's feet out from under him. Russell was ready for it and deftly stepped out of the way.

"Oh, the little brother wants to try and fight back…big mistake" Russell said and kicked Cody in the stomach, flattening him.

Back aft in the dance club Zack suddenly sat up straight from under the bar stand where he was stringing more lights.

"What is it?" Mark asked.

"I don't know…I just got a pain in my chest" Zack said rubbing it.

"Too much pizza at lunch there Zacky boy?" Bob joked.

"No, its different, it's a pain that feels…distant…the only other time I felt something like it is when Cody fell…" Zack started saying then stopped and bolted for the doors of the club.

Russell had Cody up against the wall again. By now Cody had a bloody lip from falling to the floor and absolutely no fight left in him.

"Looks like no big brother to help you out this time eh Martin?" Russell said preparing to deliver a blow to Cody's face.

Suddenly there was a voice behind him.

"Wrong" it said.

Cody watched as Russell's head flew forward and smacked the wall next to him.

Cody was grabbed and pulled out of the alcove by Zack who then turned and flew back in. All Cody saw after that was a mass of flailing arms and legs inside the alcove.

Bob, Mark, and the girls arrived seconds later. The girls sat Cody down in the hallway while Bob and Mark attempted to pull a cursing Zack off Russell. From what they could see, Zack was making easy work of Russell who was barely fighting back. Bob took a moment of hesitation by Zack to grab under his arms and lift, allowing Mark to grab Zack's midsection and together they pulled him out of the alcove. About that time two security guards came down the hall and arrived at the scene.

"What's going on here?" one of the guards said.

Russell spit out blood and pointed at Zack.

"This retard maniac attacked me, he tried to kill me!" he said.

"Liar!" Zack said, twisting out of Bob and Mark's grasp and diving at Russell.

The security guards grabbed Zack and pulled him back out.

"All right break it up, that's enough!" one of them said.

"He attacked my brother!" Zack yelled.

"At this point I don't care who did what, you're going to security headquarters and you two are going to med bay" the guard said pointing first to Zack then to Russell and Cody.

"I'm staying with my brother" Zack said back to the guard.

"No Zack, its okay, just do what he says…I'll get mom later and we'll come get you" Cody said trying to calm Zack down.

"Yeah, we'll stay with him" Barbara said.

"Aww look at the group of lovers" Russell started up again.

Zack tried to lunge but the guards were ready this time.

"Settle down young man! It'll be up to SAS staff to decide who gets held or punished or what…for now, we saw him fighting so we're taking him" the guard said.

They led Zack off as a medical team arrived to look after Cody and Russell.

Cody was released from the med bay along with Russell a half an hour later with some pain medication and an escort to the security department. Bob, Mark, and the girls trailed behind. Carey arrived about the same time they did, called from rehearsal by security.

"Oh my…what happened Cody?" she said as they met in the office.

"That's what we're here to find out ma'am…you are?" a large man in security uniform said.

"I'm Carey Martin, Zack and Cody's mother" Carey said.

"Brian Billings, chief of security, it seems your sons were in a fight with this other young man here" Brian said.

"That's what your guard told me on the phone" Carey said staring the boys down.

"Were you four involved?" Brian asked Bob, Mark, Max, and Barbara who stood silently nearby.

"We didn't see it start but we know the history between Russell and the twins and have no doubt Russell started it" Bob said.

"Yeah and Zack was defending Cody!" Mark piped in.

"Hearsay, you could just be sticking up for your friends, video evidence will tell the truth, you four just wait out here" Brian said.

Brian lead Zack, Cody, Carey, Russell, and a few SAS administrators into a conference room and motioned them to sit, being sure to keep Russell and the twins apart and a few extra guards in the room.

"Do we have the video from deck 7 ready?" Brian asked.

"Yes sir" one of the guards said.

A screen lit and showed Cody walking down the hall and Russell sneaking up behind him. When the video showed Russell hit Cody from behind and drag him into the alcove Zack would have flown over the table at Russell if guards had not been right behind him.

The video ended and Brian cleared his throat.

"Any explanation young man?" Brian asked Russell who sat expressionless and said nothing.

"Well, this seems cut and dry, I'll turn him over to you and you can deal with him according to your rules of conduct" Brian said to the SAS administrators about Russell.

"If you'll excuse me, I owe your friends outside an apology" Brian said getting up from the table.

Carey turned to Russell but spoke through him to the SAS administrators.

"Before you take him he needs to apologize to my son for his actions" she said.

"You heard the lady Russell" an administrator said.

Russell spoke but he didn't look at Cody

"Sorry" he said.

The administrators led Russell away. He was to be confined to deck 5 throughout the duration of the New Year's festivities.

Carey, Zack and Cody were left alone in the conference room.

"Are you mad?" Zack asked his mother.

"No, you didn't do anything wrong…you know I never approve of fighting but in this case I'm proud of you for sticking up for Cody…how you feeling sweetie?"

"A little sore but it doesn't hurt that bad" Cody said.

"You want to go rest in your cabin?" Carey asked.

"No, I can come up and help you" Cody replied.

"Okay well we'd better go, Zack are you going back to the dance club with the others?" Carey asked.

Zack nodded yes.

"Um mom, before I join you I want to talk to Zack alone here" Cody said.

"Ok, I'll tell the others you'll be out in a minute" Carey said standing and leaving.

As soon as his mother was out of the room, Cody, having been running on adrenaline and having kept his composure throughout the ordeal to this moment, burst into tears.

As soon as Zack saw this he jumped from his chair and ran around the end of the table to sit next to Cody and tried to comfort him. Cody, in a slight rage, suddenly pushed him away and stood up.

"Why can't I be more like you!?" Cody yelled through tears.

Even as sensitive as he was, by age 15 this kind of outburst was rare.

"Cody, were identical twins, how much more like me can you be?" Zack said calmly, standing as well.

"No, no, you took Russell apart, I let him throw me around like a basketball…it's always like that…you don't know what its like to be referred to as the 'other Martin twin'…the dorky one, the weaker one!" Cody said trying to regain his composure.

Zack didn't know what to say so instead he just moved forward slowly and hugged Cody. This time his twin didn't push him away. They parted shortly and sat back down in the chairs. Cody looked at his brother.

"You shouldn't have to come to my rescue Zack, I should be able to defend myself…it makes me feel like less of a man…and even now, crying like I'm 6-years-old…it's pathetic" he said.

"No, you don't have to be a fighter to prove you're a man…and even though I rarely show it, there are lots of times I feel like crying…I think you're more of a man because you do show your emotions" Zack said.

"You always seem to know what to say" Cody said smiling slightly through a sniffle.

"You asked me last week what had been bothering me all this time…I guess now's as good a time as any to tell you" he added.

Zack nodded, waiting.

"I'm afraid about what will happen to us once were adults…once we start our own lives. It occurred to me two months ago that once we graduate from this school…we will start our own lives" Cody said.

"What do you mean 'what will happen to us'?" Zack asked.

"You know, us, our bond…our friendship…" Cody started.

_This is harder than I thought it'd be_ he thought to himself

"…it's always been us…and if things go as they are going, I'll be with Barbara and you'll be with Max. Will we live by each other? Still do things together? I'm scared about that…about what will change" he finished.

Zack took all this in and thought about his answer. His face softened and he put his hand on his brother's shoulder, looking him straight in the eyes.

"Look buddy, I don't know what the future holds any more than you do, but I know this much…no matter where life takes us I will _always_ be there…whenever you need me. Just like I know you'll always be there for me. Sure, we may have separate lives and families of our own someday…but that doesn't mean there won't still be room enough for each other in those lives" he said.

Cody was at a loss for words, not just because something so deep had come from his brother's mouth, but because the words were exactly what he had needed to hear.

"Thanks Zack, I mean that" Cody said.

"Anytime…but I just have one question…why did you wait so long to tell me that?" Zack asked.

"I thought you'd think it was stupid or that I was being too sensitive or something" Cody replied sheepishly.

"Cody…never ever be afraid to tell me anything…I mean sure I joke around and tease you sometimes but, if you start out saying something is really important, I'll never make fun of you. In fact, let's make a pact…a secret word only we know. Now, if we use this word and say we need to tell each other something, we will remember this day and know it's a big time issue and not to make jokes ok?" Zack said.

"Ok, what should the word be?" Cody asked.

"Hmm…" Zack said thinking and looking around the room.

There were a few of pictures on the walls of roller coasters which Zack thought was an odd thing to be hanging in a room in the security headquarters of a cruise ship. Nevertheless, he looked at each one until his eyes fell on one that seemed to sum up him and his twin perfectly. It was of a coaster that had two trains that always ran together, side by side, from beginning to end, and its name was even Latin for twins…

Cody must have followed Zack's gaze, for at the same time they both said it

"Gemini"


	11. Chapter 11

**AN: Now the moment you've all been waiting for!**

**Chapter Eleven: Rouge**

**Location: 373 Nautical Miles due West of Manila, Philippines in the South China Sea**

**Date: December 31st** **11:00pm**

The weather had cleared up nicely and New Year's Eve drew towards its conclusion under clear skies. The full moon shone brightly over _Poseidon_ as the ship's holiday festivities continued on.

Down on deck 7 Max, Barbara, Zack and Bob were busy serving beverages and snacks. The latest dance music blared throughout the club as nearly all the SAS students crowded the dance floor. Zack felt right at home conducting business in the club. It was just like the night club that he and his brother had run at the Tipton. Naturally, he flirted with every girl that entered the room until Max put a stop to it with a skillfully thrown pineapple boat.

"Ow!" Zack hissed.

"Stop the flirting or next time it'll be a whole one" Max said.

"I can't help it, it's in my nature baby" Zack replied waving to a new group of girls coming in.

"Well, you keep it up and you might just get to experience my nature" Max said glaring.

"Okay, okay, don't get all excited…you know you're my one and only" Zack said kissing her on the cheek.

"You know, it's really hard to stay mad at you" Max said smiling.

"It's another of my many gifts" Zack said slyly, winking at her.

"It's getting crazy in here…I'd like to go up to the main ballroom soon and see Cody and mom, you think its safe for you and me and Barbara skip out and head up there?" he asked.

"Let's make sure that extra help we were promised got here first…we can't just stick Bob and Mark with everything" Max said

They both turned to where Bob and Mark stood behind the snack bar waiting on customers. Their new girlfriends were there helping out serving drinks and smoothies. From time to time they would trade off so one couple could go dance and the other stay and work. They seemed to have everything well in hand but Zack wanted to be sure. He and Max walked over to the bar.

"Hey Bob, you got everything in hand here? Did the extra help arrive?" Zack asked him.

"Yeah, they're here, we've actually got too many people working now" he said.

"Okay, Max and I are gonna take Barbara and head up to the main ballroom for a while then" Zack said.

"That's cool, Mark and I and the girls will probably join you up there later" Bob replied

Barbara came bouncing by them on the dance floor, obviously having had far too much sugar.

"Woooo hoooo! Yeah! Hey, come do the cupid shuffle guys!" she said whirling away again.

Zack and Max slowly turned and looked at Bob.

"Not my fault this time…the girls served her and they didn't know about her cut off time" he said.

"I'll get her, then we'll go" Zack said plunging into the crowd after his brother's hyper lady friend.

Up in the main ballroom, Cody was busy with the sound system his mother was using to perform with. He was happy because it was almost time for Gloria to take over. Gloria would be performing her special, which lasted an hour and ran through the midnight countdown, before Carey went back on for another late night show. He had only been able to get away to the teen club a few times so far and only then for only short spans of time.

Carey finished her last song and received a thunderous applause. Cody was more than ready to hand over the headset gear to Gloria's sound people. He started down the stairs to meet Carey at her table.

He spotted his mother sitting and talking with a man about her age. It was apparent that Carey was interested in the man as they were leaning in close as they talked. A few seconds later Cody reached the table.

"Oh hey honey, great job on the sound" Carey said.

"Thanks" Cody replied and then just kind of stood there awkwardly.

"Oh, sorry, this is Mike; we met on one of my last breaks. Mike, this is one of my twins, Cody" Carey said.

Cody shook Mike's hand.

"Nice to meet you" Cody said.

Zack, Max, and Barbara arrived then, having changed into dressier clothes for the ballroom party, and were also introduced.

Captain Bradford came out and gave a nice short speech about the god Poseidon and wished everyone smooth sailing in their lives for the new year. He then introduced Gloria who launched into a fairly upbeat song that got people out on the dance floor.

_Keep movin' and movin' and movin' it_…she sang.

"I was just going to come down to the teen party" Cody said raising his voice over the music.

"It's way crowded in there right now, that's one reason we decided to change and come up here" Max added.

"Plus Barbara needed to get away from the soda" Zack said pointing at Barbara who was biting her lip and clenching her fists to keep from talking to fast and bouncing off the walls.

"Barbara! You did it again didn't you?" Cody said frowning.

"Oh come on! It's only once a year for cryin' out loud!" she said.

Everyone laughed and agreed. Gloria's first song ended and Zack noted it was 11:40pm.

"Almost time guys!" Max said eagerly.

Gloria began singing a slow song called "_Won't Let You Fall"_

"May I have this dance?" Zack asked Max.

"Certainly" Max said all proper like.

Zack led Max out to the dance floor of adults, all wearing suits and dresses as they were.

Cody looked at Barbara.

"Think you can manage a _slow_ dance?" he asked her.

"Yes, I'll be fine" Barbara said smiling and accepting Cody's hand

Mike and Carey also decided to dance and followed Cody and Barbara out to the dance floor.

Dancing together, Zack and Max looked into each others eyes as did Cody and Barbara who danced next to them.

Carey, dancing with Mike, observed the two couples from nearby. She marveled yet again how grown up her sons looked.

_Especially when they're cleaned up in suits_ she thought.

"Are you having a good time?" Cody asked Barbara as they slowly circled to the music.

"I'm having a great time" Barbara replied.

"You mean the sugar rush isn't ruining your night!" Cody asked in mock appellation.

"Shut up…if anything it's made the night better" she said playfully.

"Well, don't make a habit of it, I don't know how I'd be able to tell my friends I'm dating a sugar addict" Cody said jokingly.

Barbara laughed and leaned her head on Cody's shoulder.

"You want to know what's made my night better?" Cody asked.

"Hmm?" Barbara hummed a response.

"You coming up here and being with me" Cody said.

"Oh Cody!" Barbara said.

"Oh Barbara!" Cody said.

"Oh brother!" Zack said nearby and got swatted by Max.

"It'd be nice if you said stuff like that to me every now and then" Max said

"It's not that I don't think it…I do…but Cody would be the first to tell you I don't always get my feelings out of my mouth" Zack said.

"Well, I guess I'll just have to work with you on that" Max said.

"Let's try it now…what's going through your mind right now about me?" she added.

"Hmm…how about this…out of all the girls on this ship there is none of them I'd rather be dancing with than you" Zack replied.

"That's pretty good…a touch on the sappy side…but I think there's hope for you" Max said playfully.

"Sappy! And what Mr. Romance-wannabe over there said wasn't sappy?" Zack said teasing back.

"I heard that" Cody said from off to the side.

"Just dance silly" Max said.

The song ended and they all headed back towards the table.

While on the way Carey caught up to Cody.

"Cody, I just realized something important while I was dancing. I forgot a very important piece of music in my suite that I have to perform in my next show. I don't want you to miss the countdown but as soon as its over do you think you can run up and grab it…it'll be right on the bed and take you hardly no time at all to get there and back" Carey said holding her key card out for him.

"Sure mom" Cody said taking the key.

"Thanks hone…I mean Cody" Carey said starting to call him honey but, noticing Barbara nearby, changed it. She didn't want to embarrass him.

They reached the table and as Zack and Cody stood behind Max and Barbara's chairs while the girls got seated, a small boy of about ten came walking by and bumped into the twins; dropping the video game he'd been playing.

"Aw, man, not again! Sorry!" the kid said.

"That's okay kid" Cody said.

"Yeah, here's your game back" Zack said picking up the game and handing it to the kid.

The kid looked back and forth from Zack to Cody.

"Am I seeing double?" he said.

"We get that a lot" Cody said.

"Connor, come over here honey and eat your desert" a young woman said from a nearby table.

"Kay, gotta go bye!" Connor said before running off to the table and the woman who the twins guessed was his mother.

Zack and Cody then seated themselves. They weren't there but a few seconds when a fast song began to play and they were right back up again.

"This should take care of what's left of your sugar high" Cody said.

"Bring it on!" Barbara replied as they all headed back for the dance floor.

Down on deck 7, relief SAS staff came in and relieved the volunteers, including Mark, Bob, and their girlfriends. Since it was so close to midnight, they all decided to stay in the teen club and ring in the New Year there. As they got out on the dance floor, the DJ started up yet another techno dance song.

"This is the life!" Bob said to Mark who agreed as they began dancing with the girls.

Way up above in the communications room, the officer on watch frowned at some disturbing incoming news from Manila. There had been a large 8.9 magnitude earthquake which had devastated the city an hour earlier. The report said that the news was slow to come out of Manila due to the sheer intensity of the quake.

_Ships in the South China Sea should keep a sharp watch for rouge waves…_

It was the last line in the report that alarmed the officer. He clicked the print option on his terminal to print the report so he could take it up to the bridge as was standard procedure. The printer, however, decided to take that moment to jam. The officer, instead of copying the report by hand in order to get it up to the bridge, set to work fixing the printer.

Meanwhile, on the bridge, another officer came strolling in singing a few lines from _Auld Lang's Syne_.

"Shh, quiet…quiet..." the Commander said suddenly putting his hand up to silence the officer "…Gentlemen keep it down" he added as he walked from one side of the bridge to the other

Everyone went silent.

"You feel that?" he asked.

No one responded.

"Something's off…" the Commander said.

Back in the main ballroom it was time for the countdown. Carey, Mike, Zack, Max, Cody, Barbara, and two other couples at their table all stood with their drinks at the ready.

Gloria began the countdown and everyone soon joined in "Here we go, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Happy New Year!".

Cody noticed the young boy, Connor, up next to the Captain sounded an air horn as everyone shouted.

Balloons and streamers fell from the ceiling and everyone hoisted up their drinks for a toast. Then each couple at their table gave their significant other a kiss.

All over the ship, celebration broke out with loud cheers.

In the teen club, Bob and Mark and their girlfriends toasted and received kisses of their own as the lights flashed, and streamers and confetti flew.

Cody decided to take this time to sprint off and get his mother's music. He leaned over to Barbara and told her where he was going and that he'd be right back and dashed off.

He jogged up the stairs to the upper level of the ballroom and went out two sets of doors to the open air promenade. He took some more stairs up to deck 2 and began walking towards the bow. A short distance later he turned and went back inside where the suites were located. He then made his way further towards the bow where Carey's suite was on the starboard side. The whole trip took him less than two minutes. He let himself in, closed the door, and turned on the lights.

On the bridge, the nervous Commander paced back to the other side of the bridge and looked out the starboard side windows at the horizon with a pair of binoculars. He suddenly saw something that turned his blood into ice. The entire horizon seemed to be rising up.

"No" he said.

He lowered the binoculars and squinted.

"No" he said again.

"Hard a starboard, starboard engines full astern!" he shouted running over towards the command chair.

"Starboard engines full astern!" his helms officer repeated, throwing a lever back before starting to move over to the joystick that served as the ship's wheel.

The Commander got there before he did and pulled the stick as hard to the right as it would go.

"I got it, I got it!" he shouted.

"Come on! Turn! Turn!" the Commander pleaded with the ship as he watched a small computer image compass with a representation of the _Poseidon_ in the center begin to spin. He knew an enormous rouge wave was racing towards the ship and if he didn't get the ship turned into the wave…he didn't even want to think about the consequence.

"Turn! Come on! Come on!" he said again before ordering the bow thrusters activated hard to starboard.

The officer that activated the thrusters also sounded the general alarm.

Throughout the ship, an alarm sounded with a repeating shrill whooping noise.

Cody turned and saw the wave just as the alarm sounded and he watched the full moon disappear behind it. His eyes couldn't make sense of what they were seeing and he froze right where he was.

In the ballroom, it took a moment for the alarm to register above the sound of the music but once it was heard the music stopped and they heard the announcement from the bridge.

_All crew report immediately to your emergency stations this is not a drill. All passengers brace for immediate and heavy roll_

Carey looked at Zack and the girls then over at Mike. No one seemed to know what to do. People began screaming and moving towards the exits of the ballroom.

"What do we do mom?" Zack asked.

"Let's find something to grab hold of over here" Carey said and they all rushed over to the wall on the starboard side and grabbed the railing.

Down in the teen club Bob and Mark looked at each other in confusion as a similar scene began to play out. Students panicked and ran for the exits, clogging them.

Back up in Carey's suite Cody, finally getting his mind around what was happening, decided he'd better move away from the large sliding glass doors in the bedroom and living room. He knew that the safest place to be would be as near the middle of the ship as he could get. He ran out the door into the corridor and began to run down it towards the stern.

On the bridge the crew could only watch in horror as the wave got closer. The Commander knew then that the ship wasn't going to get turned in time.

_Poseidon _dipped down into a slight trough that preceded the wave and then the 200-foot wall of water slammed into the ship.

In the ballroom everyone was instantly thrown off their feet and sent tumbling towards the port side of the ship as it keeled over.

Carey lost her grip on the railing and began sliding across the floor towards the other side of the room.

"Mom!" Zack screamed trying to hang on to the railing and Max.

When Max slipped from his grasp he let go and followed her down the steep angle of the floor.

In the teen club Bob and Mark were thrown off their feet and sent tumbling along with light trusses, speakers, and other equipment. Bob lost sight of Mark, the girls, and eventually everything else as a large piece of equipment slammed him in the head.

On deck 2, just as he reached a T junction in the corridors, the wave tilted the deck sending Cody flying down the corridor to his right. He tumbled end over end right into the door of a suite on the port side. He hit the door so hard that it broke in and Cody tumbled, unconscious, right into the room inside.

The ship was on its port side now but the wave wasn't done. It continued to roll the mighty ship over. Water crashed into the bridge.

Inside the ballroom the lights flickered as the passengers and crew began falling down the wall towards the ceiling. Zack was aware of people falling along with him down the wall but he'd lost sight of his mother, Max, and Barbara. As he slid faster, the ceiling came up to meet him much to fast and he landed with tremendous force. Shortly after that several people landed on top of him knocking the wind out of him.

To his horror he soon found out it wasn't over yet. Zack and the clump of people he was in began sliding along the ceiling, rolling past the chandlers, as the ship was rolled still further, pulled up onto its starboard side.

Cody, still unconscious, was unaware he was being tossed around in the small suite like an item in a dryer. Mattresses tumbled free of their beds, lamps and luggage items crashed down around him, and the TV tore free and plummeted straight towards him.

Mark couldn't tell which way was which any longer as he continued to tumble and roll with the other students in the teen club. He tried to grab onto a shelf built into the wall and secure himself but it slipped from his grasp. As he fell along the ceiling of the club he spotted London…she was unconscious and helpless to protect herself against the onslaught of the roll. Mark tried to pull himself in her direction but a large box speaker put an end to his effort, pinning his arm and dragging him away from her.

Back in the ballroom, upon slamming up against the same wall he'd originally fallen from, Zack waited, fully expecting to go sliding back down along this wall to the floor. The wave, however, had moved on and the stricken ship was left with no other option but to roll back down, sending everyone crashing back to the ceiling.

The screams of people and the noises of things crashing that had been heard during the entire roll reached a crescendo as the ship finally stopped moving, let out a great moan, and then the lights went out.


	12. Chapter 12

**AN: As stated before I do not own the Suite Life or Poseidon nor the characters and any copied dialogue from that show and film.**

**Chapter Twelve: The Fear that Follows**

All Zack could hear was chaos…

With a loud buzzing and crackling noise the lights came back on, a distinct hum indicating the ship's emergency generators had kicked on.

Zack pushed himself up from underneath a pile of chairs and got to his feet. He looked around room noticing the people running here and there in a panic, some trying to put out small fires with tablecloths and dinner jackets.

He scanned the room wildly for his mother, Max, and Barbara but still couldn't see them. He began moving with the crowd, throwing chairs and other debris off of people, looking under things, trying to find them.

Down in the teen club, the scene was just as chaotic. Students and staff alike dropped off ledges and landed on the ceiling. Rigging for the lights lay tangled in heaps, crating obstacles for them to climb over while trying to find an exit.

Bob awoke after some people tripped over his body. His mind reeled trying to take in the situation. He saw Mark on a nearby shelf, pinned by a giant box speaker. He was awake but seemed to be in a daze. Bob attempted to get to his feet but a searing pain shot straight up his leg and his back. He collapsed and looked at his leg. It didn't seem broken but Bob was sure his kneecap had come out of its socket.

_Only one thing to do I guess…_ he thought before grabbing a torn piece of rope, biting down on it, grabbing a broken board, laying it on the kneecap, and finally jamming his weight down on the board in what he hoped was the right direction. The pain nearly caused him to pass out but he heard a distinctive 'pop' noise and knew the bone was back in place. He wiped the tears out of his eyes and tried again to get to his feet. The pain was still intense but he could stand and walk.

He moved over to Mark and got his friend's attention. Mark's eyes were the size of golf balls.

"I can't feel my arm!" Mark yelled over the noise.

"Let me try and find something to pry the speaker off it!" Bob replied and moved away from Mark.

In the ballroom Zack turned at just the right time to see a man lift some debris off of who Zack guessed was his wife or girlfriend. Behind her, back under the rest of the rubble was Carey.

Zack bolted for the location, getting there in seconds. He knelt down next to his mother who appeared to be unconscious.

"Mom" Zack said quietly, shaking her.

At the sound of Zack's voice, Carey opened her eyes.

"Oh Zack, I'm so glad your okay" she said weakly.

Suddenly, Max appeared at Zack's side.

"Max! We got to get this stuff off mom!" Zack said hurriedly. He wanted to tell her how happy he was that she was okay but the look between them said enough and they immediately began to frantically pull things off the pile.

Bob was back at Mark's side with a piece of hand railing and shoved it into a space between the wall and the speaker. Bob put all his strength into moving the speaker and it finally slid away from the wall enough for Mark's arm to come out.

The arm didn't pull out, however, it simply fell out and hung limp next to Mark's body. It was black and blue.

"Oh man" Bob said.

"I can't move it…it feels numb all the way up" Mark said.

"That may be a good thing, I doubt it'd feel very good right now if you could feel it" Bob replied.

"We gotta find London, I saw her while I was falling, she looked unconscious" Mark said.

The two jumped down from the slight shelf and Mark let out a howl.

"We gotta get a sling or something for your arm!" Bob said and started scanning around the room again.

He found a few of the plastic streamers and looped them around to make them stronger. He bent Mark's arm, tied the streamers around his neck and then his bad left arm, immobilizing it.

They moved around a corner in the club and saw London lying on the ground. They rushed over to her and began inspecting her injuries. She had a head wound and some bruises around her face and legs. Bob gently shook her and tried to wake her up but the heiress didn't move.

Just then a loud popping noise was heard from the other end of the club. Water that had begun to seep in from somewhere began to interact with the electricity from the emergency generators. Bob and Mark huddled down next to London as they watched, terrified, as people in the same area they had just been in got electrocuted. The lights dimmed and went out in the club and it became eerily silent.

In the ballroom, Zack went to yank another chair off the pile when Carey let out a yell that stopped both him and Max. They dropped back to their knees beside her. Zack looked down inside the pile and realized with sudden horror why his mother had yelled. A chair leg had gone right through her. A small pool of blood collected beneath the impact site. Max saw it too.

They both knew enough about anatomy to know that Carey was not going to make it.

"No" Zack said in the quietest most defeated voice he'd ever used and tears swallowed up his vision.

Carey used her free hand to pull Zack back towards her head and looked him in the eyes.

"Zack, listen to me honey…you have to be strong now. You need to find your brother and the three of you find a way off this ship" her voice carried with it a sense of urgency.

"Mom…you can't go…we still need you" Zack said, trying to hold it together but failing miserably.

"I've raised you guys as best as I know how…it's time for you to stand on your own…" she said, trying not to cry.

"…It's going to be okay…you'll make it out of here and then your dad…" she added coughing, her voice suddenly loosing strength.

"No mom, no…stay with us!" Zack cried cutting her off.

"I'm sorry honey, I would if I could you know that" she said glancing down at her injury.

Max was crying too, holding one of Carey's hands and one of Zack's.

"You and Cody…my little men…" she said smiling up at Zack and thumbing away one of his tears.

"I love you Zack, I always have and I always will…We'll be together again, I promise…tell your brother I love him too…promise me you'll find him and tell him" Carey said.

"I promise…I love you" Zack squeaked out between sobs.

Carey smiled again.

"Be brave, don't give up…never give up" she said closing her eyes.

"Mom…I won't" Zack said.

Carey took another breath, sighed, and then she was gone.

Zack collapsed against her body crying himself out along with Max, who rubbed his back and tried to soothe him.

In the near darkness of the dance club, Bob and Mark turned their attention back to London. She seemed to be finally coming around, issuing soft moans and winces of pain.

"London?" Bob said.

The heiress opened her eyes and looked up at Bob and Mark.

"Wha…what happened?" she asked.

"We've turned over" Bob said looking up at the floor.

"What do you mean?" London asked.

"Something hit us and turned the ship upside down" Mark replied.

London gasped and then winced with pain again.

"Ooh, my head" she said.

Bob and Mark slowly sat London up against a nearby wall.

"Are you hurt anywhere else besides your head?" Bob asked.

"I don't think so" London replied.

"Good" Bob said.

He then turned to Mark.

"We've gotta figure out a way out of here" Bob said.

"Where are we gonna go?…there aren't any doors on the bottom of the boat" Mark replied pointing up.

"Well, we can't stay here, I'm sure if the ship isn't sinking now it soon will be…any rescue would have to cut through the bottom anyway so if we just start heading up it's our best chance of making it out of here" Bob said.

"Agreed…London can you walk?" Mark asked.

"Yes" she said standing slowly.

"Okay, let's go" Bob said.

After covering Carey's body with a tablecloth, Max led Zack away and they sat on a part of the ceiling that was close to the upturned chandeliers. Max cradled a zombie-like Zack and rocked him back and forth. He had stopped crying by then and was now simply in an intense state of shock.

Off to the side they noticed the young woman from before standing with a tall man and the two were looking up towards what was now the ballroom floor.

The little boy, Connor, was up there, trapped on the underside of the grand piano which was bolted to the floor. Zack watched as the tall man and some others held the stage curtain out so Connor could jump into it and slide down to safety. He held his breath as Connor made the jump and plummeted down into the curtain to his mother's waiting arms. She kissed her son and held him tight.

_Mom…_ Zack thought, hanging his head and crying again.

When Zack calmed down again, Max suggested they attempt to find Barbara. They assumed the worst for their friend because Barbara had not yet been seen among the survivors in the ballroom.

Zack robotically slid off the perch they were sitting on and followed Max around the debris of the ballroom. Shortly after beginning their search they discovered Carey's friend Mike's body not far from where they had found Carey. Then, in the corner of the room, the pair finally spotted the remains of Barbara Brownstein.

"Oh…" Max gasped burying her head in Zack's shoulder.

Zack said nothing, his eyes glazing over as he looked at his fallen friend in disbelief.

He picked up a torn piece of stage curtain and walked over to the body of his brother's girlfriend. Her lifeless eyes were still open so Zack gingerly reached out and closed them before covering her up with the curtain.

He returned to Max's side and numbly tried to console her.

They eventually made their way back to where they had been sitting and tried to stay out of people's way.

While they sat, Zack suddenly turned his head and looked at Max.

"I'm sorry" he said.

"Why are you sorry?" Max asked sniffling.

"I never asked you how you were" Zack said still sounding like he was a million miles away.

Max just shook her head.

"Zack, I understand…it's okay, I'm not hurt" she replied amazed that Zack even thought to ask now after just loosing his mother.

People were still nervous and scared but they were no longer panicking.

Captain Bradford took the opportunity to stand up on some tables to address his passengers.

"Ladies and Gentlemen may I have your attention please…now, we're not sure exactly what happened here but our best guess is that we were struck by what is known as a rouge wave. They're rare, they're unpredictable, and they are lethal. Now the good news, the instant this ship was struck, emergency GPS locator beacons were launched so we are _at most_ several hours from rescue" he said and was almost immediately inundated him with questions.

"_Are we sinking?" _

"_How are we going to get out!"_

Captain Bradford held his hand up and asked for quiet again.

"Please, do yourselves a favor…follow the directions of my officers and stay calm…this room is a giant air bubble holding up the ship. Once these bulkhead doors are sealed we'll safe from gas leaks, fire, and flooding…we will be safe" he said.

Zack seemed to suddenly snap back to earth when he heard what the Captain said.

"They're gonna close the doors!" he said jumping up.

"That's a good thing" Max said not following.

"No, it's not…Cody…we gotta get out of here so we can find Cody!" Zack replied.

Max, instantly understanding, bolted with Zack towards the upside down staircases.

"The officers will probably try and stop us from leaving" Max said.

"I don't care…nothing's going to stop me from getting to him!" Zack said.

They rounded the backside of the upturned staircases and Zack spotted the door Cody had left the ballroom through. Sure enough an officer manned the door.

"Where do you two think your going?" an officer said.

"My twin brother is on deck 2 and we're going to find him" Zack said staring the officer in the eye.

"No you're not, Captain's orders are to keep everyone in here…were going to be closing these doors soon…didn't you hear the announcement?" the officer said.

"What good is it going to do to keep everyone sealed in here? Think about it, the rescuers will have to come all the way down here to get us when we _could_ already be up there waiting for them!" Zack said.

"Besides, water could be coming in from who knows where, flooding the ship…one room isn't gonna hold the whole thing up" Max added.

"Yeah, you ever squeeze an egg in your hand until it breaks!" Zack said slapping his hands together in front of the officer.

"I'm not going to argue with you two…I have my orders! We can't have people running around the ship getting themselves injured or killed! Now go back where you were" the officer said.

"I guess your right" Zack said looking at Max with a fake defeated look as they turned around to go back. Max read the look and knew right away what Zack had planned.

Just then they both turned back around and bolted right at the officer, knocking him aside and sprinting into the corridor beyond.

The officer made to give chase but another officer held his arm.

"Stay at your post, there are only two of them, if the rest decide they want to leave too we'll need you here"

"Yes sir" the officer said and remained at his post.

Zack and Max ran down the corridor. The double doors that Cody had used to go out to the promenade had been automatically sealed by a steel bulkhead door.

"Is there another way to deck 2?" Max asked.

"There's gotta be…let's go down this way!" Zack said running towards the bow with Max right beside him.

Since they were running on the ceiling of the corridor, they had to dodge around light fixtures jutting up at them.

As they ran they suddenly heard the metal clanking noise of the bulkhead doors to the ballroom sliding shut and it caused them to momentarily pause.

"It looks like were on our own now" Max said.

The color drained from Zack's face and Max suddenly realized what she'd said.

"Zack, I'm…" she said.

"It's okay, let's just keep moving" Zack said.

Cody awoke to cold water hitting him in the face. He could barely see inside the small suite he'd tumbled into. The small emergency light was on, but it was very dim. One of its bulbs was smashed and it was partially underwater.

_I'm alive_ was his first thought.

_I'm pinned!_ was his second as he soon realized the full weight of the box springs and mattress, as well as what was left of the bed frame, was lying on top of him.

Panic began to set in as Cody realized, with a stinging sensation, that the water was salty ocean water…and it was rising fast.

He squirmed against the bulk above him and tried to wiggle himself free.

As the water rose, Cody feared he was about to drown. The water came up and over his face but as it did so it also started to float the mattress and box springs. Cody held his breath long enough to feel enough weight come off him before he scooted himself out from under the pile and broke the surface next to it.

Then a new weight came crashing down on him…the weight of his injuries. Upon standing upright he yelled out in pain as his right ankle sent lightning-like pain straight up his back to his head. Every time he tried to step down on it he saw stars. When he felt his head he knew he had a large gash near his hairline and he was pretty sure his wrist was sprained.

The single light dimmed even more as the water increased in depth. The water was spraying in from the seams of the sliding glass doors in the living room of the suite. When it gurgled up to Cody's knees the panic began to return.

_I have to suck up the pain and get out of this suite_ he thought.

He moved things out of the way and tried the door, which had been pushed back closed by the water. It wouldn't budge an inch. The door frame had been warped, sealing Cody inside.

_Oh no_ he thought, frantically searching the room for something, anything, to try and escape.

Just then a series of loud explosions rocked the ship.

BOOM BOOOM BOOOOOM!

Cody was thrown from his feet and splashed back into the water. His one light flickered and came back to life.

Just then a huge steel beam blasted its way through what had been the floor and embedded itself in the ceiling of the suite a few feet shy of the sliding glass doors. This of course did nothing to help the doors in their battle against the pressure of the ocean outside and they began to let a lot more water in.

Cody followed the beam up with his eyes and saw that it had broken enough of the floor above him so that he possibly climb up the beam and out through the hole it had made. He waded, and eventually paddled, over to beam and tried to climb it. His wet shoes stuck to the beam about as well as they would have had it been covered in oil and Cody kept slipping. He kept at it until he finally got some height on the beam but his heart sank as he realized the hole was not going to be big enough.

"Hey! Is anyone up there? Help!" Cody yelled at the hole as he tried desperately to keep his footing on the beam.

Just then the crippled ship threw herself into another fit of convulsions knocking Cody off the beam and into the water again. At the same time it caused more of the beam to settle into the room. This caused even more water to push through the sliding glass doors but Cody noticed it had also made the hole bigger. He got back onto the beam and started hauling himself up but he slipped again and again.

"Help! Is anyone up there!" he yelled again.

Zack and Max, having been thrown to the ground for the second time, stood up and kept moving forward. Zack was getting frustrated because there seemed to be no access to the upper, now lower, decks anywhere.

"Maybe we should try going…" Max began but Zack shushed her suddenly.

He could hear a voice calling for help. Max heard it too and the two of them raced ahead towards the sound.

They neared a suite that had had its door obliterated by a falling beam. The sound was coming from inside.

Zack carefully squeezed himself under the beam and had to keep himself from falling into a hole on the other side of it. Zack looked down into the hole and his heart leapt. It was Cody!

Zack quickly lay down on his stomach and asking for Max to grab his legs.

Just as Cody was about to give up he climbed on one last time and got some height on the beam. He reached his arm up as high as it would go, fingers stretched out and then something unexpected and amazing happened. Someone grabbed his forearm. Cody was startled and looked up to see Zack's head above him.

"Pull me back!" Zack yelled back to Max.

Max pulled with all her might on Zack's legs, and with all three of them working together, Cody rose up and out of the hole.

Zack and Cody had hardly gotten to their feet before Zack all but tackled his twin in an embrace, tears falling freely his face.

"Thank God…oh thank you God, Cody…are you hurt!" Zack said pulling back to examine Cody.

"My ankle, and my wrist…but I think you popped that back into place when you pulled me up" Cody said smiling a little.

"Your head too" Max said, coming over to wipe some blood away.

She tore a piece of her long skirt off and tied it around Cody's head as a makeshift bandage.

"How's mom? Where is she?" Cody asked.

The joy of their reunion was instantly soured. Zack looked at Max and then back at his twin.

"Um…buddy, she and Barbara…" Zack began but he simply couldn't do it.

The look on Cody's face as he realized their mother and his girlfriend were gone was too much for Zack and he, no longer able make words come out of his mouth, grabbed his brother and burst into tears again.

They stood, embraced and crying in the middle of the corridor, each feeling the _exact_ same pain over the loss of their mother. Max eventually sat them down out of fear they might fall over. She hovered over both of them, an arm on each shoulder, trying to comfort them in any way she could.

_Poseidon_, however, was not able to wait for them to grieve. Another set of explosions rocked the ship and a loud crash was heard from the hole Cody had just been pulled from. The sliding doors had just given way. Water blasted up through the hole and surged out at them. Along the corridor they saw water begin to gush out from under the edges of some of the other suite doors.

"Time to go!…I promise you I'll get us out of here, all of us!..." Zack said looking Cody and Max in the eye.

Cody and Max nodded and they all broke into a run. The chase was on…


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen: Urgency and Despair**

Zack, Cody and Max ran down the corridor, but the way Zack and Max had come was now blocked by debris. An enormous safe had come crashing through from above causing a large area of the floor above them to collapse. The safe, standing on its end, now provided a step up towards the hole.

"Up there!" Zack pointed as seawater reached their ankles.

Zack jumped and grabbed onto the edge of the safe, hauling himself up to stand on it. He motioned for Cody to join him and Cody repeated the move Zack had just done to get up on the end of the safe.

Zack tried to reach up into the deck above so he could pull himself up but it was out of reach.

"I guess you can't boost me" Zack said turning to look at his brother who was holding his wrist.

"No…but I have another idea" Cody said dropping to all fours.

"Hey guys, the waters rising here!" Max said with an alarmed voice.

Zack stepped onto Cody's back and reached up. He got both hands on the ceiling of the deck above and began to pull himself up. The jagged edges of the tear cut into his arms and belly but he ignored it and eventually pulled himself up into deck 4.

Cody immediately turned and, using his good arm, reached down to Max who started pulling herself up. The rising water had made the distance less and, with Cody helping to lift her under one of her arms, she managed to get onto the side of the safe. They looked up at Zack and waited.

Zack lay on the deck ceiling and leaned down into the hole as he had done when he had pulled Cody from the suite.

"You first this time" Cody said to Max, again dropping to all fours.

Max climbed on his back and reached up to grasp Zack's outstretched arms. As soon as she grabbed on to him, Zack realized he wasn't strong enough to pull her up. He also began to slide a bit towards the opening.

"Max, jump back down, I'm sliding in!" Zack yelled and she released his arms.

Cody got up and they looked up at Zack again.

"I'm going to have to find something to tie to the wall" Zack said.

"Ok, make it quick though, the water's rising fast!" Cody said.

Zack ran from the opening desperately looking for a rope-like object of some kind. He realized quickly that this was the mall deck. Debris from all the stores lay scattered around him in the dim light. He ran along until he finally spotted a rope coiled up behind a fireman's axe and a fire extinguisher. He high kicked the glass and grabbed the rope. Upon reaching the hole in the ceiling he looped one end of the rope around a broken window frame of one of the storefronts and lowered the other end down to Max.

Max grabbed the rope and began to climb. When she could just reach into the deck herself Zack grabbed one of her arms and helped her lift herself up to stand next to him. They dropped the rope back down to Cody.

Using his good arm and both legs, Cody grasped the rope and tried to climb. The combination of his hurt wrist and ankle made this a nearly impossible task.

"Just hang onto it Cody!" Zack yelled down.

"Max, grab on, we'll lift him out" Zack said.

Before either of them could grab the rope the window frame cracked and the rope came loose. Cody landed back on the safe with a thud. The water had risen so much that the safe began to teeter like it was going to go over.

"Grab the rope quick!" Zack yelled to Max and they both latched on and began pulling hand over hand.

As the safe finally toppled, Cody clung for dear life to the rope. After what seemed like an eternity, he was high enough in the hole where Zack and Max could grab under his arms and pull him onto the deck.

"That was another close one…I know someone who needs to stop eating the goods while he bakes!" Zack said patting Cody in the stomach.

"Hey, I might nibble a little, but you're the one who devours most of the finished product!" Cody retorted.

As if to put an end to their emerging argument, _Poseidon_ once more erupted in a slew of explosions. All three fell to the floor.

"What the heck do you think is causing that!" Zack asked, standing again when it stopped.

"I don't know but we'd better keep moving…grab the rope, no doubt we'll probably need it again" Cody said looking down into the hole at the rising water.

All three began running down the corridor. As they went they took in the utter devastation that had been wrought on the stores. They came to a stop when they neared what had been the food court.

"Now there's something you don't see everyday…" Max said.

"An upside down food court" Cody said.

All three chuckled lightly at the sight.

A tremendous moan shattered their revere as a geyser of water came blasting up through the hole they had left behind. It was joined by even more water coming in from above and below.

"Let's move!" Zack yelled seeing the water surge towards them.

They broke into a run again.

Cody scanned the floor above them, looking for a way up. They ran towards the stern until another mountain of debris blocked their way.

"Now what?" Max asked.

"Over here! The elevators!" Cody exclaimed, spotting the elevator doors off to the side.

"Cody, you do realize they don't work right?" Max said.

"Yeah, but hopefully the cars are below us so we can climb up through the shafts" Cody said.

"Genius!" Zack replied.

They pried open the first set of doors with a piece of debris Zack had located but found that the car was stuck right at their deck. It seemed as if the car had been in transit between decks when it lost power as it wasn't quite square in the opening.

Once more the seawater reached their feet. Some of the emergency lights sparked and sputtered, some died out.

"Quick, let's try the next one!" Zack said.

They began to pry the next set of doors open but these were harder. Finally, with all of them pushing and pulling on the bar, the doors finally slid open, the elevator car inside slid down a bit...and something dropped out of it.

Max screamed and all three of them jumped back in horror. A body lay sprawled out before them, blackened from an apparent fire. Inside the car were more bodies, burned like the first one. The smell was indescribable.

Cody turned away and promptly threw up. Zack held Max's face to his chest as he stared, to shocked to look away himself. He patted his brother on the back.

"Uh…come on Codes…we've got one more to try" Zack said in a hoarse, barely audible voice.

They did their best to ignore the bodies and jammed their pry bar into the last set of elevator doors. More sparks flew and then more lights went out. They were losing light and the water was deepening fast. These doors opened smoothly. All three braced for more bodies but this time there was nothing but open shaft in front of them. The water around them began to pour into the shaft. It was deep enough to where it was trying to push them into the opening.

"Hold onto me so I can get a look inside!" Zack said.

Max tied the rope onto the railing behind them and then held onto it for added support. Cody stood in front of her, the rope under his bad arm, holding onto Zack's belt with the other. Zack held onto the rope with one hand and the door frame with the other and peered in.

"Well, I've got good news and bad news…the good news is we can climb up to another deck…the bad news is, we only get to go up one…the car looks like its stopped on deck 6" he said.

"Well, that's better than staying here!" Cody said.

"One problem though…once we get on this access ladder here and climb up, we won't be able to get back in front of the doors on deck 5 in order to pry them open" Zack said.

"Look for a manual override, a hand crank looking device, every deck should have one" Cody said.

Zack looked and sure enough spotted something that looked like what Cody was talking about.

"Yes I see it…man am I glad you spent all that time following that engineer guy around" Zack said.

Cody smiled briefly then frowned, wondering what had become of his friend.

Just then Zack noticed the elevator car above him shift a little.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me" Zack said to himself.

"What?" Cody asked.

"It moved! We've got to go now!" Zack said.

Cody and Max hauled him back from the opening and all three stood against the back wall. Max untied and re-coiled the rope slinging it over her head and through her arm.

"The access ladder is to the left inside the shaft. It's going to be tricky for each of us to try and get on it with the water pushing at us" Zack said.

"If we run at a diagonal towards the opening and jump at the last minute our momentum should carry us to the ladder…only thing is we might fall quite a ways before we're able to grab a rung" Cody said.

More lights died out, it was now nearly dark in the hallway.

"It's now or never, Max…you want to go first this time?" Zack asked.

Max nodded and lined up to make her run.

She darted from the wall, running as best she could in the now shin deep water. At the last second she lept into the shaft. She fell a bit, but as Cody had predicted her momentum carried her to the ladder. She climbed up enough to stand above where she anticipated Zack would land.

"I made it, come on!" she yelled out to them.

"Who's next?" Cody asked.

"Me, I wanted Max above me and you last so in case I have to help you she could grab me and I could grab you…with your bad hand and all" Zack replied.

Cody made eye contact with him.

"You think were gonna get out of here Zack?" Cody asked.

"Were doing okay so far…and I don't intend on quitting…were gonna make it" Zack said.

Cody nodded and Zack broke the stare and lined up for his jump.

He ran and jumped the same way Max had done, landing a little below her, right where she had landed. They moved up the ladder, making space for Cody.

"Okay Cody, come on!" Zack yelled.

Cody lined up and took a deep breath. He started his run, his ankle protesting greatly, and made to jump. Before he could though, the ship erupted into yet another set of explosions. Cody was thrown off balance on his last step. He jumped anyway, flying out into the empty space of the elevator shaft. He yelled out, realizing he wasn't going to reach the ladder where Zack was. He reached out towards it as he fell and eventually his good hand grabbed hard to a rung on the ladder. His fall had caused him to pick up much more speed than the others and the force of grabbing the rung with one hand to stop his full body weight from falling yanked his arm out its socket.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Cody screamed in pain.

His body twisted around as he frantically fought to get his feet on the ladder.

It all happened in seconds, the landing, the twisting…the force of Cody's fall was so great that, while he had managed to grab hold of the rung, he wasn't going to be able to hang onto it. Just before Cody lost his grip, Zack grabbed his other arm. In the few seconds that had passed, Zack had seen what was going to happen and had let go of the ladder, free fell, and grabbed back onto the ladder just in time to reach the spot where Cody had landed. Zack bore Cody's full weight until Cody twisted back around and got his feet on the ladder, then he put Cody's arm over the closest rung.

Cody looked up.

"How many times are you going to save my life today?" he asked.

"As many times as I have to" Zack replied.

Cody glanced down and noticed the shaft was rapidly filling with water, both from below and from the doors they had opened on deck 4. They began climbing, Cody ignoring the now insignificant pain in his right hand and using it to grab one rung after another. The pain in his left shoulder, however, was searing. That arm hung limp at his side.

The elevator car above them had lowered itself even more after the explosions and now sat level with the top edge of the doors to deck 5. Max was the first to reach the level the doors were on. She spotted the manual hand crank for the doors and tried to turn it. It wouldn't budge.

"I can't get it to crank Zack, see if you can climb up here next to me" Max said.

Zack shimmied up one side of the ladder to stand next to Max.

"Just brace yourselves in case we get more of those explosions" Cody warned from below.

Both Zack and Max tried pulling the lever and still it wouldn't budge.

"Any ideas" Zack asked Cody.

Cody thought for a few moments.

"See if there is a locking pin, or a latch or something you have to remove first" he suggested.

Zack searched the device for any such thing and found none.

"I don't see anything like that!" Zack said.

Cody looked over and down at the deck 4 landing. Water now rushed like a waterfall from the opening and the shaft was filling up quickly now.

"Well, I don't know then but you better figure it out pretty quick…have you tried turning the other way?" he asked up to them.

"No, lefty loosey right, it has to be that way" Zack said.

Cody rolled his eyes and groaned.

"Not when the ship is upside down!" he said.

"Right" Zack said and then both he and Max tried turning the crank the other way.

"It's still resisting but…there! It's going now!" Zack said.

As soon as the doors were open some debris fell out of the deck and into the shaft. They then had to figure out how to get over to the opening. Max wordlessly handed Zack the rope then reached over and grabbed the ledge of the opening. Then she moved her hands sideways along the ledge. When she had moved over far enough she hauled herself up and onto the deck.

"Oh sure, easy for you Mrs. Gymnast…I _might_ be able to do that but what about Cody?" Zack said.

"Toss me the rope" Max said.

Zack threw her the rope and she tied one end of it to a nearby metal door frame. She tossed the other end back to Zack who tied it to the ladder.

The elevator car chose that time to shift and squeak, dropping a few inches lower.

"Oh I have a bad feeling about this…Cody, you're going first" Zack said.

"Why?" Cody asked.

"Because if that thing goes soon you'll at least be over there where you'll be safe" Zack replied.

"Now wait just a minute…" Cody began.

"Cody, don't argue with me! Just go, now!" Zack said.

Cody's mouth shut and he slowly maneuvered himself next to Zack and grabbed the rope.

"You'll be right behind me?" Cody asked as he put his good arm and both legs on the rope and began to shimmy towards Max.

Zack looked down, alarmed at how full the shaft was by this time.

"Like white on rice" Zack said eying the water.

The elevator car protested a few more times but held firm.

Once Cody was close enough to Max she grabbed him and hauled him in.

"Okay guys, I'm gonna untie my end, swing out, and then climb straight up so we can keep the rope" Zack yelled to them.

"Okay" Max and Cody replied.

Zack untied his end swung out. Just then the elevator car let out a shriek and a groan and began to drop down.

"ZACK!" Cody screamed when he saw the car start to fall.


	14. Chapter 14

**AN: We catch up with Bob, Mark, and London at the start of this chapter. I own nothing except my OC's. Enjoy!**

**Chapter Fourteen: Despair and Hope**

Bob, Mark, and London were making progress. They had managed to make their way as far towards the bow as they could get on deck 7 before they had run into a dead end.

"Now what?" London asked.

"I don't see any way for us to go up here…we may have to go down and then try to find another way up" Bob said.

"Down! But that's where the water is flooding in from!" Mark said.

"Do you see any other way? I mean, we could go back the way we came but…" Bob began.

"Oh no, I am not crawling back through that stuff we just crawled through" London said firmly.

"London, no matter where we go from here, you're gonna be crawling over or under more stuff, you can count on that" Bob said.

London didn't say anything in response.

"Bob, doesn't it seem to you like the ship is tilting forward towards the bow?" Mark asked.

"Yeah, it does now that you mention it" Bob said as he noticed the slant in the ceiling they stood on.

"Well, if the ship is sinking by the bow, and we keep heading forward, then when we do eventually make it to the hull..." Mark began.

"...it might be underwater" Bob finished with a sigh as he thought for a moment.

A sudden series of explosions rocked the ship and threw the trio off their feet for what seemed like the hundredth time. Bob looked back in the direction they had just come in time to see the floor above them collapse, sealing off the corridor.

"Well, there's our answer…" Bob said as the noise died down "…even if we wanted to go back we can't now…" he said.

"I guess our best bet now is to do like you suggested, try and find a way down and then back up from there" Mark replied. Bob and London nodded in agreement.

They began looking for a stairwell, a hatch, anything that they could go through to descend down to the deck below. As they searched, even though he knew it was a lost cause, Bob walked over to the collapsed section of deck to see if there was any way they could get through it. As he was inspecting it he noticed something. The thickness of the deck that had fallen down looked surprisingly thin.

_Thin enough to smash through if I only had an…_

"Mark, London! Look for an axe! There has to be a fire hose around here somewhere and maybe there is an axe!" Bob suddenly exclaimed, finishing his thought.

They frantically searched through their small section of deck 7 they were now trapped in, which included a crew lounge and a pair of restrooms. As if sent from heaven above just for them, London spotted the handle of a fireman's axe sticking out from under a small pile of debris and brought it back to Bob.

"Good job London!" Bob said taking the axe from her.

He then led the others back down the corridor to where the collapsed section of deck was and began swinging. He quickly learned that, due to the angle of the collapsed deck in relation to himself, he wouldn't be able to get a solid hit on it. He tried a few other positions but quickly realized they were not going to be able to cut through and head back the way they'd come.

"Looks like we're back the original plan…we'll have to go down" Bob said. He assumed that the deck they were standing on would be the same thickness as the one that had collapsed.

They returned to the area near the dead end and Bob picked out a spot that he hoped would be the best place to try and cut through. He took a big swing and slammed the axe down as hard as he could on the ceiling beneath him. Plaster shards and paint chips went flying as Bob continued swinging. Eventually Bob tired and leaned against the wall. He had made some progress as the trio now saw the wooden ribs that made up the distance between the ceiling of deck 7 and the floor of deck 6. Mark was unable to swing to the axe because of the damage to his arm. Bob looked at London.

"You think you could do some damage London?" Bob asked, breathing hard.

London rubbed her arms and did her shoulders in a circular motion before she answered.

"You bet, I'm gonna put all my anger at being trapped down here into it!" she said.

Bob handed her the axe, not expecting the thin girl to be able to do much, and stood out of the way. London effortlessly hefted the axe up and over her head and slammed it down into the hole Bob had begun. Much to Bob and Mark's astonishment, huge shards of wood began to fly up from the hole. London swung the axe again, and again, and again. Bob and Mark shielded their eyes from the splinters flying through the air. After a few more swings London had punched through to deck 6. London dropped the axe through the hole and turned to look at the guys, covered head to toe in wood pieces.

"Okay let's not ever really make her mad huh Mark?" Bob said.

"Agreed" Mark said, his jaw on the floor.

Bob lay on the floor next to the hole and put his head though it as London and Mark held his legs. The emergency lights were out on deck 6 and he could hear the sound of water spraying from somewhere in the direction of the stern. Bob pulled his head back out of the hole and looked up at the others.

"We're gonna need flashlights, the power is out down there" he said.

Mark and Bob returned to the crew lounge where London had located the axe and Mark found a flashlight inside the locker of one of the crew members. When they returned to the hole, London was nowhere in sight.

"London?" Bob called out.

"London where did you go?" Mark chimed in.

In response they heard nothing but the low groaning sounds of the ship. Suddenly London was behind them, causing both of them to jump with a start.

"Hey guys, I went in to use the bathroom and not only did someone put the sign for the door upside down, but they put all the toilets and sinks upside down too! How is anyone supposed to _go_ in a bathroom like that?" she said to them as they spun around to face her.

"London, the entire ship is upside down remember?" Bob said pointing to the floor, which was the ceiling.

"Oh yeah" London said as a horrified look replaced the slightly miffed look she had had a moment before.

"Let's go" Bob said shaking his head and moving over to the hole with Mark.

"You think it's amnesia?" Mark asked Bob in a whisper only the two of them could hear.

"No Mark, it's London" Bob replied.

London came over to join them and then, deciding to go first, dropped down through the hole to deck 6. She landed with an "oomph" as it was a considerable distance but quickly informed Bob and Mark that she was okay. Next, Bob tossed the flashlight to London and then did his best to lower Mark, by his good arm, as far down as he could until he had to let go and London caught him. Then Bob dropped though and was also cushioned somewhat by London. Bob turned on the flashlight and shined it aft. Sure enough a spray of water was coming through a wall of debris in the direction of the stern. Bob swung the light back towards the bow and saw to his relief that there was a clear path for them to go.

"Okay, let's try to go forward as little as possible. Keep looking for a way up" Bob said and the trio started off again.

... . . . ... ... . . . ... ... . . . ...

The elevator shuddered down, stopped, then squealed down rapidly. The rope Zack clung to was snapped when the elevator fell past the open doors to deck 5 and he plummeted down the shaft into the water. The elevator seemed to be falling after him just as fast but it caught again at the last second, stopping just above the opening to deck 4. Zack fought to keep his head above water as it poured in on him from the opening above. The few remaining emergency lights in the shaft between himself and the bottom of the elevator was barely enough to illuminate Zack's surroundings. He could see that he was about 8 feet shy of being able to force his way back into deck 4. Above him he could hear Cody and Max screaming for him from the other side of the elevator car.

Zack realized that if the elevator let go it would hit him, fill with water, and push him down deeper in the flooded shaft. He would certainly be killed. There was no way he could climb the 8 feet up the ladder and make a jump back into deck 4 while the water was still pouring out of it.

His only option was to wait…to tread water until the shaft filled up enough and lifted him level with deck 4, praying all the while that the elevator held where it was until he could get out of its way. He looked up at the ominous car above him.

_Please, just wait!_ he thought towards it.

On deck 5 Cody was frantic. He knelt at the opening, looking at the bottom of the elevator car which now separated him from his twin. For all he knew Zack had been hit by the car and knocked unconscious.

"There has to be something we can do!" Cody cried out, his voice strained from screaming Zack's name after the car first fell.

Max looked around, just as frantic, scanning the immediate area for…what? What could she possibly find that would allow her to remove this large elevator car from between them and Zack? She had never felt so helpless…

Zack waited, swimming as hard as he could as the water swirled him in circles like he was in a slow moving toilet bowl. The water rose quickly and he was now only 2 or 3 feet from being level with the opening to deck 4. Each time he passed beneath the waterfall coming from the opening, it pushed him down and he had to swim even harder to return to the surface. When his head was above water he kept his eyes glued to the elevator car perched above him. Occasionally it would rumble and shriek but it held firm.

_One more foot to go…_ Zack thought, flinching every time the car made a noise.

Finally the water in the shaft reached the opening to deck 4. The water coming out of deck 4 seemed to equalize and slow when it made contact with the water that was already in the shaft and Zack quickly swam through the opening. At that moment the car let go and slammed into the water behind him, creating a wave that slammed him up against the wall across from the elevators. Zack was now in total darkness, listening as the water filled the elevator car. All he could do now was hope the car wasn't stuck again. His only hope was for the weight of the water to pull the car down further, past the opening, so he could escape back into the shaft and climb up to where Max and Cody were.

With nowhere for the water to go now, deck 4 began to fill rapidly around him so that he soon found himself once again having to swim to keep his head from going under.

He fought back intense panic as he treaded water all alone in the dark as he listened to the groans of the dying ship.

Something bumped his leg and he instantly knew it was one of the corpses from the other elevator. That pushed him over the edge. He swam towards the elevator car and pounded on it with his fists, kicked at it with his feet, trying everything he could think of to get it to fall and not having any success. Deck 4 was now nearly full to its floor and Zack screamed in terror, realizing that his life was about to end.

Just then _Poseidon_ let loose with another round of explosions...

As Cody continued to kneel at the opening of deck 5 fearing the worst, the explosions started again. Max grabbed the back of Cody's shirt to keep him from falling into the shaft. As the explosions stopped Cody heard a tremendous noise from high above and watched in awe as the entire hydraulic mechanism for the elevator came falling down the shaft. He scurried back from the opening just as the heavy machinery came screaming past and slammed into the elevator car below…

Just as the water reached Zack's chin the explosions ceased and he heard a low, lasting rumble from above. Suddenly the car in front of him disappeared with a deafening sound and he was launched forward into the shaft by the force of the water falling into the void. He held his breath and found the access ladder. Judging by how far he had been pushed down into the shaft he knew he would have about 20 feet to go before he broke the surface again. Hand over hand he shot up the ladder. As his lungs screamed for air, he resolved that there was no way he was going to die and leave Cody and Max alone.

Cody sat in utter despair. If Zack wasn't dead before, after what he'd just seen, he was sure he was now. Tears welled up in his eyes as he looked at the water now rising above the opening to deck 4. He saw no sign of his brother and put his head between his knees and began to sob. Max, beside him, was just as distraught. But then they heard a splash of water and both looked up to see a sight they never expected to…Zack was climbing up the ladder as fast as he could.

"Zack!" both of them said in utter astonishment.

"Hey guys, miss me!" Zack replied.

"How did you do that!" Cody asked as Max just shook her head in astonishment.

When Zack reached the level of the opening to deck 5 Max and Cody, Cody using his good arm, used what was left of the rope to haul Zack in. The adrenaline rush both of them had provided them with more than enough strength to get the job done.

As soon as they had pulled him in they all collapsed in a tearful reunion.

"Zack! I thought I'd lost you" Cody cried.

"Shhhh, it's okay, I made it...I promised you I'd make it…" Zack said crying as well.

Max was so overwhelmed she didn't have any words at all. She simply cried tears of joy into Zack's shoulder.

Zack turned his head back to look at the elevator shaft. The water was still climbing.

"Guys, we gotta keep moving…" he said, jumping up and helping the others to their feet.

"Aaaaaaah!" Cody yelled out in pain as Zack absentmindedly grabbed him by his bad arm.

"We have to do something about that arm. Is it broken?" Zack asked.

"No, its just out of its socket at the shoulder" Cody replied.

"So what do we do?" Zack asked.

"I have to somehow pop it back in its socket, but the pain involved is going to be incredible" Cody replied.

After a moment of consideration he walked over to the wall and leaned his bad arm against it. Using his knowledge of anatomy he gritted his teeth and maneuvered the ball of his shoulder joint to the area of the socket.

"Okay, Zack, I need you to run at me and slam into me as hard as you can. Make it happen the first time…this is something I don't want to have to try twice" Cody said.

"Buddy, you sure about this?" Zack asked, not liking the idea at all of being the one to cause so much pain to his twin.

"Yes Zack, it'll pop the bone back in and we don't have a lot of time to discuss it. Max, I'm going to need a sling of some kind after its back in place, see what you can find ok?" Cody replied.

Max nodded and began looking around.

"Ready Zack?" Cody asked.

"Yeah, you?" Zack said sounding very uncertain.

Cody nodded and Zack moved back against the opposite side of the room. He took a run and Cody shut his eyes. This was really going to hurt.

Zack rammed into Cody at top speed. Cody heard the popping sound of his shoulder bone going back into place and immediately saw stars as the most intense explosion of pain he'd ever felt in his life surged from the shoulder area to the rest of his body. He screamed out and would have collapsed to the deck in a heap if Zack hadn't been there to hold him up.

"Did it work, is it back in!" Zack asked in a very distressed tone of voice, indicating he was not dealing very well at all with the amount of pain his brother was in.

Cody nodded and smiled a little smile at Zack. "Let's hope we don't have to do that again" he said. Zack smiled back, calmed a bit as he realized Cody was okay.

Max returned with a large piece of tablecloth from the commons area. She tied it around Cody's neck and Zack gingerly placed Cody's arm inside. In the sling it would be immobilized, allowing the traumatized muscles and joints to begin healing.

"Okay, now let's get going" Zack said.

As they turned to run towards the stern on their former school deck they heard someone calling for help in the opposite direction.


	15. Chapter 15

**AN: This chapter depicts an underwater swimming scene. Both the original Poseidon Adventure and the remake have a scene like it. When I watch them I always find myself thinking, 'could I hold my breath long enough to swim that far?' Enjoy!**

**Chapter Fifteen: Dead Weight**

"Did you hear that?" Max asked

They all stood still and listened. After a few moments the voice called out again.

"It sounds like its coming from the direction of our cabins!" Zack said.

They rushed through the broken glass of the double doors towards the guys cabins and the sound of the voice.

"We'd better make this quick, the ships seems like its settling in this direction which means we're more likely to encounter flooding sooner by going this way" Cody said pointing in the direction they were now heading.

The cry for help issued again, much louder now as they neared its source.

"That voice sounds familiar" Max said.

"Who would have been down here at midnight? Everyone was supposed to be at the teen dance" Zack said.

It dawned on all three of them at once as they turned the corner at a T junction and heard the cry yet again.

"Russell!" they said together.

Sure enough, as they entered the demolished rec room near Zack and Cody's cabin, they spotted Russell pushed up against a wall in the corner sandwiched inside a pile of debris. Nearby, the body of the SAS staff member assigned to watch Russell lay dead. Russell, from what little they could see of him, appeared injured. Blood seeped from a large laceration on his forehead.

"Aw man, two hours of calling for help it had to be you three" Russell said.

Zack turned to his brother and Max as they all stood in the doorway.

"Ok, you heard him, he doesn't want us to rescue him, let's go" he said.

Cody and Max seemed ready to agree and follow the departing Zack out of the room but then Cody put a hand out to stop him.

"No Zack, he may be the biggest jerk imaginable, but he's still a person and he needs our help" Cody said. Zack just looked at them and then at Russell in the background.

"I know, I just wanted to scare him a little" he said low enough so only they could hear.

"Hey, come on you guys hurry up and get me out of here!" Russell piped up from behind.

"You sure we can't just leave him here?" Zack asked.

Cody and Max just gave him a look that said 'we wish, but no'. Wordlessly they turned back around and all three of them began pulling things off the pile, Cody removing the lighter objects with his good arm while Max and Cody tackled the larger ones. Just then the lights slowly dimmed almost to nothing and the ship issued a long low groaning sound. They felt a rumble but it was much less intense than the explosions they had experienced before. Then the lights slowly came back to full strength.

"What was that all about?" Zack asked.

No sooner had the words left his mouth than every entranceway to the rec room became inundated with water blasting in from the corridor outside. It was as if someone had opened up the floodgates of a large dam.

"I had to ask!" Zack yelled over the rushing sound of the water.

They frantically began hauling the debris off Russell at a much faster rate but the water was rising very fast. It wouldn't be long before Russell, who's head was probably 4 feet off the ground, would drown within the pile. As they got closer to freeing Russell, they suddenly encountered an awkward and heavy object they couldn't budge.

"We need something to leverage this with!" Cody said.

Zack looked around and glimpsed a long piece of broken handrail outside in the corridor. Walking as hard as he could against the onrush of water, which was now up to his waist, he reached out into the corridor and managed to grasp the piece of railing with both hands. As he held tight to it, he let the force of the water try and push him back into the room. This was enough force to tear the piece of railing off the wall and both it and Zack tumbled back inside the rec room. As Zack stood and rushed back to the pile, he noticed Russell's head had gone under.

"Hurry!" Max cried out.

They jammed the piece of railing under the object and pushed down as hard as they could. It took several tries until it finally toppled off the pile and the water floated the rest of the debris away. Russell rose back above the surface…but he was unconscious.

"Grab him under his arms! We'll have to drag him out of here and try to revive him when we get to higher ground!" Zack said.

All three grabbed a different part of Russell and they began rushing for the nearest door. The water was rising even faster now and was nearing the top of the doorframe. They had to swim, trying to keep their heads and Russell's above water, against the oncoming torrent. Once outside the room they let the force of the water propel them down the corridor towards the stern. They picked up speed and the water whipped them around the turns at the T junction, slamming Russell first against Cody and then against Max and Zack. Once the water pushed them through the remains of the double doors it was shallow enough where they could once again move on their feet. This however meant that they now had to bear the full dead weight of Russell's body between them. It was slow going as they made their way up the slightly slanted deck towards the commons area and girls cabins. Once completely out of the water where they could finally lay Russell down on the ceiling of the deck Cody instantly bent down and began administering CPR to Russell. Because he had use of only one arm, he had Max conduct the compressions on Russell's chest while he supplied the air. They worked at it for two minutes straight which seemed to them like ten. All the while Zack eyed the waterline moving towards them from the bow as if it were the bubonic plague closing in.

"Not much time guys" Zack said.

"We're doing the best we can! Come on, breathe Russell!" Cody replied.

After a few more attempts Russell's mouth issued a small geyser of water and the boy began a fit of couching and gasping for breath.

"Thank God…good work" Zack said clapping Max and Cody on the back.

Russell rolled over on his hands and knees and finished coughing up the water.

"Can you walk?" Cody asked moving to help Russell stand.

"I think so" Russell replied shrugging off Cody's attempt to help him to his feet. The laceration on his forehead, the blood from which had been washed off quite nicely by the water, began to bleed again and Russell swayed a bit on his feet.

"We gotta stop that bleeding" Cody said.

Zack tore a piece of his shirt sleeve off and went to tie it around Russell's head. Russell moved away from him as if he didn't want the boy anywhere near him.

"I'm fine" Russell said.

"Hey! Do you want to keep bleeding out until you pass out and die from lack of blood in your body!" Cody said, annoyed at Russell's attitude towards them after they had just saved his life.

Russell said nothing but allowed Zack to move behind him and tie the piece of shirt around his head. The water reached their feet at that moment and they knew it was time to start moving again. They headed aft, Max and Zack supporting a still unsteady and somewhat uncooperative Russell, into the girls section of cabins.

"We have to find a way up" Zack said.

Cody spotted a vent near his feet as they passed.

"Hey Zack, check it out, an air vent" Cody said,

Catching on, Zack walked over to inspect the vent.

"It looks just like the ones we used to climb in back at the Tipton" Zack said.

"Where do you think it goes?" Zack asked.

"Up hopefully, to the lower decks" Cody replied.

"We're gonna need something to pry this grill off" Max said.

Russell made a noise like an exasperated snort.

"This might be great for you guys, but if you hadn't noticed, I'm a little bit bigger than all of you…there's no way I'm going to be able to fit in there" he said.

_Tough luck you ungrateful jerk_ Zack thought and wanted to say but instead turned to face Cody to see what he would say.

"He's right, I doubt he'll fit. There is no sense in us going this way unless all of us can go...we'll find another way" Cody said.

Zack suddenly had an idea "I think we should try just one of us going…" he began and had to hold up his hand right away to quell his brother's instant protest "…so that person can go up and find a way for the others to come through…a way everyone can go" he finished.

"And by one of us you mean you right!" Cody said.

"Well yeah…" Zack replied. "I'm uninjured, I have the best chance of making it up and locating a path for the rest of you" he finished.

"But what about Max! She's not injured, why does it have to be you?" Cody said, ignoring any potential input on the matter from the girl standing right next to him.

"Cody, what's the matter with you? I'm not going to ask Max to go when I'm perfectly able to…" Zack began.

"What's the matter with me!" Cody exploded "Just a little while ago I watched an elevator fall and assumed that it killed you…mom and Barbara are dead and I just don't think you need to…" Cody replied. He was talking rapidly and his breathing was erratic. It was clear, even to Zack, that his twin was having a panic attack. Zack grabbed Cody by the good shoulder and gave him a gentle shake.

"Cody! Calm down! Look at me…look at me Cody!" Zack said getting Cody to look him in the eye.

"I have to go through there and find a way up for the rest of you. I'll be okay, if I don't find anything in 10 minutes I'll come back" Zack said in a calm but stern voice.

"Zack, I could go" Max piped in.

"Oh good grief, why!" Zack asked.

"Why not? Cody's right, I'm unhurt and just as able as you to crawl through there. You don't have to be the one that saves the day every time you know" Max replied.

"I just think it would be better if I went" Zack said.

"You just don't want me to go because I'm a girl right?" Max asked.

"Oh no, you're not going to go there are you?" Zack replied.

"Look, you've basically been dragging me along all this way. Let me do this for us" Max said.

"Would _someone_ please go!" Russell stammered impatiently.

Zack and Max looked at Russell then at each other, exchanging a brief stare down before Zack motioned to the vent.

"Alright, but please be careful and come back in 10 minutes if you don't find anything" he said. Max nodded and Cody breathed a sigh of relief.

They pried off the vent cover with a shard of wood they found and max moved to climb in. Before she could go though, Zack stopped her and gave her a quick kiss.

"Good luck" he said with a small smile.

"Thanks" she said, giving her own brief smile before disappearing into the ductwork.

Cody knelt down next to Zack and watched her go.

"She'll be okay" Cody said trying to reassure Zack and suddenly feeling guilty for suggesting Max go instead of his brother. If anything happened to Max, Cody realized Zack would blame him, and that would put a rift between them that would be hard to bear. As if reading Cody's mind Zack seconded his twin's comment.

"Yeah, she will, we'll all be okay" he said.

... . . . ... ... . . . ... ... . . . ...

Bob, Mark, and London reached another dead end on deck 6, halfway between the very front of the ship and its center. They still hadn't found an access route back up to deck 7 and were becoming increasingly alarmed at their predicament.

"Now what?" London asked.

No one had an answer as they all leaned against the corridor walls to rest a bit. Bob had a look of deep concentrated as he desperately tried to think of what to do. Then he suddenly brightened up and snapped his fingers.

"That's it! A fire crew staircase!" he said.

"Huh?" London and Mark asked at the same time.

"Lots of builders of big ships and hotels install these special stairways that are only for fire response crews. They put them in so that the crews can get to any level of the ship or hotel as fast as possible. The doors to these stairways are almost always out of sight from public view, sometimes even concealed behind wall panels. It might be a long shot that we're in the same area as one, but maybe we'll get lucky" Bob said as he began searching for seams in the paneling along the corridor.

The others joined him and after about ten minutes of searching Mark spotted an odd looking section of paneling in a small alcove. It looked just like the the surrounding wall paneling except there were small seams around its perimeter and it had a tiny label next to it which read _emergency crew access_. They pried the panel off and discovered a steel door behind it. It was sealed shut with four handles, two at the top and two at the bottom. After turning each handle, Bob and London cautiously pushed at the door, prepared to slam it back shut if water started flooding in. When no water came blasting out at them Bob opened the door the rest of the way and and they stepped inside. The stairwell was dimly illuminated with red lights. They looked up only to find the stairwell blocked with debris. Looking down they noticed it was clear.

"We can't keep going down! The surface is that way!" Mark said pointing up.

"It seems we don't have a choice…who knows, maybe we'll find a hatch that leads outside the ship and we can swim out and then up" Bob said.

"Yeah, but the further down we go the longer it will take us to swim to the surface, we could run out of air before we make it" Mark replied.

Bob shook his head "I understand that, but at this point we are out of options. You saw that wall of debris back there where we jumped down, and now this debris blocking us from going up…going this way is our only chance" he said.

The others nodded, knowing he was right. They sealed the door behind them and started down the upturned spiral staircase. When they reached the level of deck 5 they noticed the doors on each side of the stairwell straining to hold back water. It sprayed into the stairwell from their edges.

"Deck 5 must be flooded forward _and_ aft, so much for going to our cabins to get any of our stuff" Mark said.

"You actually would have wanted to?" Bob asked.

"Well, no…I guess our stuff really wouldn't have been worth the time" Mark replied.

Passing the door, Bob wondered what had become of all the other SAS students, including Zack, Cody, Barbara, and Max. Having the same thought Mark said "I wonder if they are still alive"

"I hope so" Bob said.

They descended further, past the doors to deck 4 which were also issuing a spray of water from their edges, indicated that deck was completely flooded as well.

"I guess we better be glad these doors are hanging in there, otherwise this stairwell would be flooded too" Bob said.

"Daddy's company builds good quality ships" London said, piping up for the first time in a while and sounding more like she was trying to reassure herself rather than state a fact.

"It'd have to be good quality for it to hold up as well as it is" Bob said.

As if to mock London and Bob's comments, just beyond the door to deck 4 they got to a section of the staircase where several of the stairs were missing. They had apparently separated from their fittings against the wall and now lay atop the remaining staircase further down below.

"We're gonna have to hold onto the sides of the shaft and step on those torn pieces of metal there where the stairs used to be. How's everyone's balance?" Bob said.

London commented that her frequent use of the gym gave her excellent balance. Mark, however, wasn't so sure of his ability to make the descent with only one good arm. Nevertheless, they all stepped out onto the pieces of torn stairs in turn and, clinging to the wall for support, slowly traversed the damaged section. It was slow going with Mark slipping a few times, but they made steady progress. Bob, who brought up the rear behind Mark, watched London jump down to the undamaged portion of the stairs when she had gotten close enough. She was safe, but _Poseidon_ had other ideas for Mark and Bob and shuddered into another almost forgotten about series of explosions.

BOOM BOOM BOOM

Mark slipped again and Bob had no choice but to grab him by his bad arm. Mark howled in pain as Bob fought to hang on to him and the wall. In the end Bob lost the battle and Mark slipped from his grasp. Mark fell 15 feet to where London lay sprawled out on the stairs. Having been knocked off her feet, she was in no position to even attempt to catch Mark. The boy landed with a small thud and when London got to her feet she shrieked in horror. A large jagged piece of collapsed stair had driven itself right through Mark just below his heart. Mark was still conscious but blood leaked from his mouth and his eyes were wide. Bob finished his descent quickly and rushed over to the scene.

"Oh man, you're gonna be alright Mark" Bob said, knowing instantly that he was wrong.

Bob looked around for a way to get Mark off the piece of jagged stair but he could already see that Mark was loosing strength. Bob looked down and knew the metal must have passed through a major artery by the amount of blood coming out of the wound. He looked up and met Mark's gaze with his own as London, tears falling freely, stroked Mark's hair.

"I'm sorry Mark…I'm so sorry, I couldn't hang on. I failed you. I…" Bob began, becoming too choked up to speak any longer.

"Ship failed me…you…gave me a chance…not your fault" Mark gasped out between breaths in a voice barely louder than a whisper.

Bob just shook his head as he tried to be strong and hold it together for his friend.

"Tell my mom…brave…tried to get out…love her" Mark said and then added "get London out"

Bob nodded a yes and squeezed Mark's hand "I will" he said.

London and Bob then watched as Mark's breathing slowed, his eyes closed, and he died.

Bob didn't hold back then. In tears he stood up, moved away from the body, stumbled back against the wall of the shaft, slid down, pulled his knees up to his chest, and put his head down. London, openly crying herself, came over and sat next to him. The heiress was so distraught she couldn't think of anything comforting to say or do. For both of them, it wasn't just the shock of suddenly loosing one of their close friends, but also the enormity of the entire situation they were in. They just sat there crying out their fear, pain, and grief together. It was only when a sudden shower of water hit them from above that they gathered their wits about themselves and realized it was once again time to move. The explosions had weakened the seal on one of the doors above them and it was now letting much more water through. London helped Bob to his feet and, still in a profound state of shock, the two of them started off down the stairs again.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter Sixteen: Collapse**

Max climbed up level with deck 6 and spotted the grill cover for the air vent on that deck. She pushed against it several times, trying to pop it off, but it refused to budge. She climbed a bit higher and began kicking at it with her foot. Finally the stubborn cover came off and dropped into the room beyond. She went through the opening and noticed she was in one of the kitchens that comprised that deck.

The scene around her was straight out of a nightmare. Kitchen utensils, appliances, and food of all kinds lay scattered before her on the floor. Fires from the gas stoves emanated from their housings above her head. The temperature was unbearable. Several bodies of the kitchen staff lay scattered around the room. Max gagged from the smell but pressed on through the room. She had to find a way up for the others. There was no way to head aft so she went forward towards the bow. She went through a doorway and rounded a corner, being careful to duck down below the flames when she had to. She was looking for some kind of access back down to deck 5.

_They must get the food up to our commons area somehow...maybe some kind of dumbwaiter...hopefully its big enough to allow the boys to climb up_ Max thought to herself.

As she moved along she had to stop and grab a cloth, wet it using the water trickling down from the floor above, and hold it over her mouth. Even with it the smoke proved to be overpowering.

She moved further forward, to the spot where she figured she would be directly below, now above, where the commons area was on deck 5. She spotted a large closed door with a control panel next to it that indicated up and down. It was too small to be a normal elevator but larger than a standard dumbwaiter. _That must be it!_ Max thought. As she hurried over to it she stumbled and nearly fell after running into someone's feet. She turned and looked down to see chef Paulo laying there dead. Max brought a hand up to her mouth and tears came to her eyes. While she had never lived at the Tipton herself, she had on several occasions gotten to meet the chef and had eaten many of his specialty dishes. He had struck her as such a kind and generous man who could also have somewhat of a temper at times. He knew how much the big guy had meant to the twins, especially Cody. _How am I going to prepare him to see this? _She thought.

She shook off the thought and turned her attention back to the door. There was a small lever next to the door and she began cranking it. The doors opened easily enough and she peered inside. The dumbwaiter itself was wedged above her in the shaft and, unlike the elevator from before, did not appear to be at risk of falling. Max then looked down and noticed that the shaft appeared wide enough to accommodate the boys, particularly Russell. As she was about to head back to the air vent to inform them she heard a noise and looked closer, squinting down into the darkness. Down where deck 5 was, water was spraying into the shaft from the seams of an identical set doors there and she saw that the shaft was almost flooded to that point.

_The commons area must already be completely flooded_ she thought. Despair enveloped her as she realized this was the only way, other than the air duct, for them to come up.

_And Russell can't go that way!_ She thought. Then an idea struck her.

_Maybe they can swim underwater to this shaft!_

While hurrying back to the air vent she spotted a square shaped industrial flashlight lying on the ground next to a first aid kit, another rope, and an axe. They had all come flying out of a nearby supply closet when the ship had turned over. She grabbed the flashlight and the rope and made her way back to the vent. She climbed in and began her short decent.

... . . . ... ... . . . ... ... . . . ...

Huddled next to the air vent opening on deck 5 Cody was beginning to get nervous. By his best estimate Max had been gone almost all of her allotted ten minutes. Zack was staring up into the darkness of the duct as if he was willing his girlfriend to return safely.

"Uh...maybe we should go see if..." Cody began.

"Shhh, I hear something...it's her! She's coming down!" Zack said. The relief in his voice matched the relief that surged inside Cody.

Max reemerged from the duct and Zack gave her a quick hug. He noticed she was sweating profusely and her skin was bright red like she had been in a sauna. She set the rope and flashlight down beside her.

"What did you find?" he asked.

"The kitchens are one deck up. A little ways forward I found a large dumbwaiter shaft that I'm assuming they used to get meals to the different decks. It's bigger than the air duct so everyone should be able to fit..." Max began, glancing at Russell. "Zack, the access for it on this deck must be back that way in the commons" Max said pointing behind them down the corridor in the direction they had just come.

At that moment they noticed the water surging up the corridor towards them.

"Max, it's already flooded back that way" Zack said.

"I didn't see any other way to get from down here up to there!" Max said, obviously frustrated. "Your only option is to swim back into the commons, find the doors to the dumbwaiter, and then crawl up the shaft to deck 6"

Zack made a mental note in his head of the distances involved.

"Are you crazy! It's way to far!" Russell said.

"I hate to admit it, but he's right, it's got to be a hundred feet at least, then I'd have to find the door" Zack began. "Even if Russell and I managed to make it, there is no way Cody would, not with one arm" he finished.

"I don't know what to do then...it's either this or try to force Russell into the air duct!" Max said, desperation apparent in her voice.

"Well...what scares you more Russell? Drowning by trying to swim too far underwater or getting wedged in that duct...and then drowning?" Zack asked.

"You're not actually considering trying to swim that far?" Cody said, turning his brother to face him as another wave of panic threatened to seize him.

"It's up to Russell, whichever way he decides that's the way I'll have to go...you said it yourself we can't just leave him behind Cody" Zack said.

"Yeah, but would he do the same for you!" Cody spat, knowing his twin was right but not liking it one bit.

Russell didn't say anything and just looked at the floor. The water crept towards them even more and Zack finally made the decision.

"Cody, you are going to follow Max up the duct to deck 6, Max...you'll help him along?" Zack said.

"Of course" Max replied.

"Whoa, wait, who made you decision maker!" Cody asked.

"Cody, please, just do it...Max, take him and go" Zack said as Max began pulling his brother away from him toward the air duct.

"Zack! What if you drown!" Cody said, now on the verge of dissolving into a mini freak out as he was led away.

"I haven't let you down yet and I won't now...I'll see you up there, I promise" Zack replied trying to sound as confident as he could.

Cody seemed to calm down a bit as he and Max disappeared up inside the air duct. Zack bent down and picked up the flashlight and rope that Max had brought back with her.

"You ready for this?" Zack asked Russell.

The color in the larger boy's face only paled in response and he looked just as uncertain as Zack felt.

"Here, tie this around your waist...it'll keep us from getting separated. When we go under, follow my lead understand" Zack said.

Russell nodded as he tied his end of the rope around himself.

"How good a swimmer are you?" Zack asked him.

"Actually, swimming is one of the few things I'm really good at" Russell said.

The bully's demeanor had seemed to soften dramatically now that it was only himself and Zack. Zack took this as a sign that maybe Russell's hard edge was just a way he drew attention to himself. Now that there wasn't an audience he had seemed to drop the act.

They waded into the water as they headed back towards the exit to the girl's cabin area. They got as far as they could, eventually treading water, before their heads touched the floor that was slanting down at them from above. As they prepared to go under, Russell spoke up.

"Hey Zack, can I ask you something?" he asked.

"Shoot" Zack replied.

"Why are you doing this? You are risking your life, risking leaving Cody alone, just to help me get out. I've been so rotten to you two...it doesn't make sense" Russell said.

"No, it doesn't make sense, and to be completely honest with you...when we first found that air vent, I thought about leaving you there and going on without you. But I realized I couldn't do that. If I had left you behind then, or let you try this on your own now, and you died, I wouldn't have been able to live with myself. It's the kind of person I am. You're right, I could die here and then Cody would be alone...and nothing scares me more than that. But if I do at least I'll have died doing the right thing and I know Cody would understand that" Zack said.

"Well, whatever happens...thanks" Russell said and Zack could tell that such words were not easy for him to say. He came from a completely different upbringing than Zack and Cody.

If they made it out of the ship alive Zack knew they would probably still not like each other, but he doubted very much that Russell would still treat them as he had.

"Ready?" Zack asked as he switched on the flashlight.

"Ready" Russell repled.

"Three deep breaths and then we go on four" Zack said.

They breathed in and out and on the fourth count they both went under.

... . . . ... ... . . . ... ... . . . ...

Max helped Cody out of the air duct on deck 6 and they began making their way forward. Now Cody could see, and feel, why Max had returned to them all sweaty and red. The kitchen was an inferno. After taking this all in, his thoughts went back to his brother and the challenge he knew he was now facing. He hated Russell now more than ever and it made him feel terrible inside. If Zack died while helping..._him_, Cody didn't know how he would cope. He felt a sense of betrayal that Zack would leave his side while they were in a situation like this. But as he thought about these feelings surging inside himself he suddenly felt guilty and knew he was being selfish. Cody understood why Zack had decided to do what he did. It's how they were raised. Carey had brought them up to know that they should always do whatever they could to help anyone in need. Cody then realized that, wherever she was, their mother would be proud of Zack and that made Cody proud of him too.

_Hate is not the answer, and anyway, Zack's not going to die...he promised me_ Cody thought.

As they were about to enter the room where the dumbwaiter shaft was, Max suddenly stopped as if she had suddenly remembered something. She quickly turned around blocked Cody's view into the room beyond.

"Cody, before we go in there I think there is something I should tell you..." Max said.

... . . . ... ... . . . ... ... . . . ...

Zack and Russell swam as fast as they could. The corridor was dimly lit by a few remaining emergency lights that amazingly refused to short out. Despite this, Zack was grateful to have the flashlight. After what seemed like an eternity they swam into the commons area. Zack headed for the area where they would pick up their trays on the days they didn't have a buffet and swam through the opening. Russell followed right behind him. Not immediately seeing what he was looking for, Zack began frantically shining his light back and forth in the small serving area, scanning everywhere for the doors to the dumbwaiter shaft. His lungs felt like they were going to explode. He fought the urge to open his mouth and breathe in, knowing what that would mean. He finally spotted the doors and hurried over to them. He found the hand crank and tried it. It wouldn't budge.

_Oh no, please, not this_ Zack thought.

He tried to think of a solution, but because his brain was becoming oxygen deprived he found his thoughts becoming hazy and unfocused. He shined the light at Russell and saw that he was on the verge of panicking. Before Zack could do anything else, Russell moved himself in front of the doors and began to mash his foot down on the crank. Zack tried to stop him, fearing he would break it off, but Russell continued unabated. The kicking eventually paid off and the crank began to turn and the doors began to slide open. Once it was open enough, they swam through the opening and up, breaking the surface inside the shaft.

"What were you thinking! You could have broken that handle off!" Zack yelled as soon as he could speak again.

"I didn't see you coming up with any better ideas!" Russell yelled back.

"Well, at least it worked, we're alive" Zack said.

They then began the arduous task of scaling the wall of the shaft. Fortunately they only had to climb up one deck. Zack smiled as they ascended side by side.

_I saved a life and I kept my promise to Cody_ he thought.

... . . . ... ... . . . ... ... . . . ...

Cody collapsed upon seeing the dead body of his beloved friend. He dropped to his knees as if being shoved down from above by a pair of powerful hands. He didn't cry, there were no more tears to cry. He simply had a blank defeated look on his face as he tenderly picked up one of chef Paulo's limp hands. Max stood behind Cody with a comforting hand on his shoulder. Then she heard a noise in the shaft behind them. Leaving Cody's side, she rushed over and looked down to see Zack and Russell climbing up.

"Oh thank God" Max said.

Zack and Russell reached the opening and Max helped them into the room. Zack and Russell leaned against the wall and tried to catch their breath.

"See Codes! I told you I'd make it...didn't I promise..." Zack began without realizing why his twin was kneeling on the floor with his back to them and not moving.

Max stopped Zack from speaking by grabbing his arm and shaking her head. Zack then took a few steps closer to Cody and saw the body spread out before his brother.

"Oh no" Zack said as he walked up and dropped down right beside Cody.

Cody didn't move, didn't blink, didn't speak. He just continued to stare at chef Paulo's body. Zack put his arms around Cody and pulled him in. Cody tried to cry then, but the only thing that came out were a few dry sobs. Tears came to Zack's eyes but he was hurting more for his brother than the actual loss of chef Paulo. A few minutes passed and the ship issued a large groan, snapping Zack back to reality. He turned Cody towards him so he could look him in the eye.

"Cody, I know it's hard, but we have to keep going. We have to get out so we can live, so we can remember everyone we lost here. They would all want us to get out you know that right?" Zack said.

Cody was looking at Zack but he still seemed a million miles away. Zack tried again.

"One of the last things mom said to me was not to give up. She made me promise to find you and get you and Max out of here and I intend to keep that promise. Please Cody, don't quit on me now" he said.

Cody blinked then and his eyes seemed to refocus. He nodded at Zack and allowed his twin to help him to his feet. They heard the sound of rushing water then and looked behind them just in time to see the water come over the edge of the opening between the dumbwaiter doors. In the time they had been in the room the water had flooded the shaft up to deck 6. _Poseidon _was sinking rapidly now.

"Max, did you see any way to get to the stern back by the air vent!" Zack asked hurriedly.

"No it's a dead end that way" Max replied.

"Okay, this way!" Zack yelled and they started running further towards the bow.

As they ran, every joint and seam in the corridor seemed to split open, allowing multiple jets of high pressure water to spray in at them from below. They exited the first kitchen through a round steel hatchway door and found themselves in a kind of foyer between the two kitchens. They walked across the small room and as Zack went to pull open the door to the next kitchen Cody suddenly yelled out and grabbed Zack's hand.

"What?" Zack asked.

"Look at the door" Cody said.

They all looked closer at the door and noticed it was sweating. Cody ran his hand from the bottom of the door all the way to the top.

"Completely flooded, if we open this we'll be inundated!" he exclaimed.

"So we're trapped here" Max said.

"One last chance...stay here, let me see what's over that way" Zack said and moved back deep into the small foyer area. If there was no way up back there, he knew they were all done.

_Fourth and goal, no time left on the clock, last play of the game_ Zack thought. He rounded the corner and suddenly beamed.

"Happy new year guys, there's a stairwell back here!"


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter Seventeen: Claustrophobia**

After sealing the hatch behind them, Zack, Cody, Max, and Russell began climbing up the stairwell. Cody determined it must be a special staircase for the kitchen staff so they could get from their cabins on deck 11 up to the kitchens.

_Chef Paulo must have just loved having to climb these stairs every..._ Cody thought before sadness over the loss of his friend sunk back in and stopped him. He was ascending the stairs beside his brother who suddenly turned his head to him to ask a question.

"Cody, I've been meaning to ask you this for a while now...do you have any ideas on where exactly we should be heading to in order to get out? I mean, when we get to the bottom of the ship we can't just knock on it and say 'open up'"

"To be honest, I haven't really thought that far ahead. Up to now I figured the plan was just to get to the lower decks" Cody replied. His face then took on a thoughtful look as he pondered just where they should be trying to go.

"Didn't you spend a lot of time in the lower decks with your engineer friend?" Zack asked.

"Yeah, but we never came through here" Cody replied. He began muttering to himself as he thought about where they were in relation to where Harold had taken him through the lower parts of the ship.

"I know one time we went to where the air conditioning plant is...now let's see, we are somewhere near the middle of the ship and it seems like that was too. So it should be nearby...we passed through deck 9 where we stopped at..." Cody rambled on to himself as Zack watched, half interested, half amused. When his brother suddenly stopped and grinned he knew Cody was on to something.

"What?" Zack asked.

"The secondary control room!" Cody said excitedly.

"Ok what's so special about that?" Zack asked.

"It's kind of like a second bridge. If weather or a big wave were to ever hit the ship head on, break through the windows on the bridge and short out the controls, the crew could run the ship from the secondary control room" Cody replied. By the look on Zack's face, he still wasn't seeing how this could help them so Cody went on.

"If we could locate it we might be able access the ship's self diagnostic program"

"What will that tell us?" Max asked from behind them where she climbed along with Russell.

"Well, the program uses these sensors placed throughout the the ship on each deck to relay environmental and technical information back to a central computer. It can be accessed from either the bridge or the secondary control room if need be. If it's still operational we could use it to find out which decks are flooded, where the fires are, and most importantly, a way out of here!" Cody said. The others nodded their heads, finally understanding.

"Well, sounds like a plan to me, let's find that room!" Zack said and they all began walking up the stairs a bit faster, having some hope to put a little bounce in their steps.

Their new found optimism was short lived however as they soon realized there were no exits from the stairwell to any of the decks between 6 and 11. Apparently, the designers intended for this stairwell to be accessed only on those decks.

"Well that's stupid!" Russell exclaimed once Cody had pointed it out.

"It makes sense though..." Cody began "...The crew on a big ship like this have all kinds of behind the scenes corridors and stairwells specifically for them to use so their interaction with passengers is kept to a minimum. This one is obviously for the kitchen staff to get from their quarters up to the kitchens...we'll have to find another way to get into deck 9."

Looking back down the stairwell at how far they had already climbed and then looking up, Cody did an estimate in his head and determined that they had to climb one more flight of stairs before they would be level with deck 9. He told this to the others and they continued up. When they had climbed the stairs Zack wrapped on the walls of the stairwell, testing the thickness of them.

"Seems like it's just plaster and drywall, we might be able to break through it" he said.

"Unless it's got steel behind it" Cody replied.

Zack nodded in agreement as he continued to ponder their options. Suddenly Cody pointed to something up high on the wall that they hadn't noticed.

"Another air vent" he said.

"Oh not again" Max said as she and Russell spotted it as well.

It was much smaller than the last one and looked as if it would be a tight fit for anyone over the age of ten.

"If I couldn't get in the last one, there is really no way I can get in that one!" Russell said.

Zack turned to Cody to address him but the others could still hear what was said.

"What if you and I go through, find that room, get the information if we can, and then come back here" he said.

"That sounds like it could work" Cody replied.

"What about us?" Max asked.

"While we're gone you two could go on up to deck 11 and see what's there. If Cody and I get to this room and find the system is no longer operational and we come back empty handed, you guys could already have an idea on where we could go from there" Zack replied.

"What if you get trapped over there and can't get back?" Max asked, sounding slightly alarmed.

"That's not going to happen Max. We're gonna crawl trough, find that room, and come right back the same way. We'll be fine" Zack said.

"Well, I...I know that the information in that room would probably help us a lot, but why can't we just keep going like we have been? We'll eventually find a way out" she said.

"Max..." he began, taking her by the shoulders and looking into her eyes "...we can't keep guessing where to go next. Remember back in that foyer? We would have been trapped if this stairwell hadn't been there. I don't want to risk getting us in that situation again"

Max nodded, understanding. Zack turned to Russell.

"Can you give me a boost up so I can get the cover off?" Zack asked.

Russell nodded and moved over by the wall below the vent.

"Once I get it off I'll climb in...I don't think I'll be able to turn around and help pull you up Cody, think you can manage with one good arm?" Zack asked.

"I'd should be able to, I haven't been doing all those pull ups for nothing" Cody replied.

Zack gave a small laugh "You've been doing pull ups?"

Cody took on a defensive look, knowing immediately that Zack was teasing him.

"Among other exercises! Why?" he stammered.

Zack chuckled again.

"It's just...you don't...never mind let's just go" Zack replied. He turned to Russell.

"How do you want to do this? Boost me with your hands or standing on your back?" Zack asked.

"Hands" Russell replied cupping his hands together. Zack stepped into them and Russell lifted him up.

He worked the vent cover off, grabbed the bottom edge and began to pull himself up into the duct beyond. Almost immediately he knew it was going to be a very tight squeeze. His shoulders passed through the opening with centimeters to spare but then the curvature of his spine crashed painfully into the top edge of the vent opening.

_I am going to get stuck in here!_ his brain screamed, but he pressed on, knowing how important it was for them to do this. After a little more pulling at the inside walls of the duct, and some minor removal of the skin down the middle of his back, he was finally inside. He moved forward to make room for Cody behind him. It was slow going as the duct was barely large enough to accommodate his body, let alone any actions to move it. There was only a couple of inches of space above him and to his sides. Zack was slightly claustrophobic under normal conditions, so it wasn't surprising that in this duct he found himself fighting back intense waves of panic.

_And if the water comes..._ his mind started before he quickly pushed that thought out of his head. Behind him he heard a small bang and realized Cody's hand had grabbed the bottom edge of the vent opening. He could hear Cody grunting in effort and some more bangs and then, glancing back as best he could in the small space, he could see Cody's head come through the opening.

"Oh man..." Cody said upon taking in the dimensions of the duct and seeing his twin wedged in it ahead of him. Russell gave him a good shove and then it was Cody's turn to have some skin shaved off his back. That combined with the passage of his hurt shoulder through the opening caused him an intense wave of pain. Thanks to Russell's strength, at least it was over quickly. Cody came to rest on his stomach, halfway in the duct and halfway out. He now faced a dilemma. Unlike Zack, he was not able to use both arms to pull himself the rest of the way inside using the walls of the duct and Russell could no longer reach him. Zack heard his distress from behind.

"How you doing?" he asked.

"Not so good, I can't pull myself forward" Cody replied. Zack backed up a bit.

"Grab my foot!" he said. Cody reached out ahead of himself and grabbed Zack's foot. Zack tried moving forward again but quickly discovered that he didn't have enough strength or purchase in the small area to move them both.

Outside the duct, Max could see things were not going well. She asked Russell to boost her up and he agreed. Once she was lifted up, Max grabbed Cody's legs and began to push. Together with Russell pushing Max, Max pushing Cody, and Zack pulling as best he could, Cody finally made it completely inside. Once inside, without the weight of half his body hanging outside the duct, Cody found he could move forward on his own bit by bit using his one arm.

"You guys good!" they heard Max yell from outside.

"Yeah!..." Zack yelled back, the sound of his voice in the tight space causing Cody to cringe and squeeze his eyes shut "...go on up to deck 11 and see what you can see, we will try to make it back in..." he added but then faltered.

"How long do you think we'll need?" he asked Cody.

"I'm not sure...we have to find it, then I have to access the system somehow if I can...20 minutes?" Cody replied with a shrug.

Zack resumed yelling and Cody jammed his eyes shut again "20 minutes!"

"Ok, be safe guys!" Max said and then they heard her and Russell moving away up the stairs.

After that the only thing that could be heard was the sound of their breathing, Cody noticed Zack's seemed to be coming in faster bursts than his own. He couldn't tell if it was because of the exertion of getting into the vent or if Zack was anxious. Although the two of them had often climbed all around in the ducts back at the Tipton and Zack had had no problems with that, the two of them had been much smaller and those ducts had been much larger. Cody had learned years ago, after a game of hide and seek with their friends in which the twins had hid together under a couch, that his brother had a slightly harder time dealing with small spaces than he did. Of course later Zack had denied it. For him to admit to being claustrophobic would be admitting weakness and that was something Zack just didn't do.

"Doing okay Zack?" Cody asked.

"I'm...alright...let's just get moving so we can get out of here" Zack replied.

They inched along the duct for what seemed like an eternity before coming to a T-junction. Zack looked left and saw more darkness. He looked right and spotted another vent about a fifty feet away.

"What do you see?" Cody asked.

"There is a vent to the right, about fifty feet away, but I don't know how we are going to make this turn" Zack replied.

Zack's already high anxiety began to build. He knew that if they could not get to the vent and get out of the duct and into a room where they could turn themselves around, the chances of them being stuck were very high. He began to attempt the turn. He positioned his body at an angle as much as he could and tried to move forward. The turn was too tight, there simply wasn't enough clearance. He could feel his pulse pounding in his temples.

"Cody..." he began in a quiet voice "...are you able to move backward?"

Cody tired but couldn't.

"No" he said.

In the next instant the normal roles between them as they had been during this entire ordeal were completely reversed. Zack, the normally calm, level headed one began to panic. His breathing went through the roof and he began to feel lightheaded. He'd been close to this point once before, when he had been alone on deck 4 as it flooded around him and he had had nowhere to go. At that time, just as his panic had reached this point, a solution had presented itself, freeing him from his predicament. This time no such solution was appearing and his panic was allowed to reach the same point and then move beyond it. Cody, who would ordinarily be the one more prone to panicking, was actually the one to keep calm. He realized in an instant that he needed to calm Zack down so they could think of something or they were both going to die in here. He reached up and touched Zack's leg.

"Zack, calm down! Listen to me, we're okay! We are going to figure this out!" he said, his commanding voice surprising even himself.

Zack began to calm down but Cody could feel in his brother's leg that Zack was trembling.

"Just breathe slowly, deep breaths...we're okay, we have time...let's just think this through" Cody said.

Zack nodded at Cody's words.

Once his vision went back to normal from the blur he had experienced during his panic attack, Zack looked around again seeking a solution.

"Okay, what is it that we need?" Cody asked.

"More room" Zack replied.

"Is there any way to create that? Can we force the walls of the duct to deform somehow, allowing us more space?" Cody asked.

Zack reached ahead of him and pushed on the far wall of the crossing duct. It gave a little bit. Then he tried punching it a few times. His effort left a small dent in the wall.

"I think I can move the wall of the cross duct out if I keep punching it, but I'm gonna end up breaking my knuckles" Zack said as he punched a few more times.

Cody thought for a moment and then came up with an idea.

"Zack, I'm gonna take one of your shoes off and hand it up to you. Put your fist inside it. That should provide some cushion" he said.

"Good idea" Zack replied.

Cody untied Zack's shoe and pulled it off. Zack reached back and Cody put the shoe into Zack's hand. It was a tight fit to get the shoe between the duct walls and his body but Zack was finally able to pull it through. He balled up his fist and put it in the shoe. With renewed effort Zack slammed the duct wall repeatedly. He kept at it until his fist ached and his arm burned. As he got to the point where he couldn't throw another punch he realized he had deformed the duct wall enough so that they might be able to make the turn. He inched forward and found his hunch to be correct. A wave of relief washed over him.

He moved around the corner and Cody followed with some difficulty, emitting a few gasps of pain from his bad shoulder. Then they moved slowly over to the vent. Using the shoe once again, Zack put all the remaining strength in his arm into one good punch. The vent flew off and Zack eased forward to look into the room beyond. It was a small reading room with a single emergency light illuminating it. This vent, like the one they had come through, was high off the ground and Zack had no other option but to allow himself to plummet from the vent opening to the floor. He landed with a crash onto a pile of books and an overturned chair. He stood up and helped Cody emerge from the opening.

"Glad that's over" Cody said as he stood up.

He looked over at Zack who wore an expression of embarrassment. His eyes were glued to the floor.

"Cody...I'm sorry...about what happened in there...I..." Zack stammered.

"There is nothing to be sorry about Zack, so you have a little bit of an issue with claustrophobia...that's nothing to be ashamed of" Cody said.

"Yeah, but I'm..." Zack began.

"...supposed to be Mr. Macho man, yes I know that. Don't worry bro, I won't tell anyone" Cody finished for him, playfully punching him in the arm.

Zack looked up then, grinning sheepishly.

"Now, let's find that control room" Cody said.


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter Eighteen: Time Bomb**

Zack and Cody clambered over the scattered books and furniture of the small reading room and went through the damaged doorway. Immediately outside the room a small rectangular deck plan was fixed to the wall. Cody ran his finger along the plaque until he found what he was looking for.

"We're in luck, the control room is just a little ways down this corridor" he said.

They ran down the corridor and turned right into the room. Once inside both boys stopped and stared. They were in the right room for sure, all the electronics were there, but what gave them pause was the unfortunate fact that they were all bolted up on what was now the ceiling.

"This could be a problem" Zack said.

All around the room keyboards and mice hung down by their wires, some consoles buzzed and flickered, and there was an intense smell of overheated circuitry.

"I didn't think of this" Cody said.

"How the heck are you going to get up there to check the system!" Zack asked.

At first Cody just shook his head, but then an idea came to him.

"Maybe we can pile up some debris..." he said.

Zack just looked at him like he had lost his mind.

"...at least until it's high enough to where you could jump up, grab the chair, and pull yourself up" Cody added.

"Whoa wait, me?" Zack asked.

Cody nodded.

"My shoulder..." he began, pointing to his hurt shoulder "...if I had two good arms I could do it, but I don't, so you'll have be the one that goes"

"But Cody, even if I managed to get up there I don't know what to look for...you're the tech guy!" Zack said.

"You're every bit as smart as me, you just don't realize it. Remember the dance competition at the Tipton? Remember what you told me about how anything you could do I could do too? The same is true for you" Cody said.

"Did you forget how that dance competition ended? With you falling off the stage!" Zack replied.

"Because I was showing off...look, I'll talk you through it. As long as you don't start showing off yourself and pressing random buttons you should do fine" Cody said.

Zack reluctantly agreed.

"So which chair sits in front of the terminal that accesses the diagnostic system?" Zack asked pointing up at the three chairs.

Cody walked under each of them straining to see what was on each terminal above. After a few minutes he thought he spotted something that looked like an image of the ship being displayed.

"That one" Cody said pointing to the middle of the three chairs.

The two began quickly building a kind of makeshift tower out of random pieces of debris they found both inside the room, out in the corridor, and in nearby rooms. Each item they brought in they would throw higher and higher onto the pile. When it reached up to about six feet below the chair they decided it was high enough.

Zack began to climb, the pile shaking and shifting under his weight. When he reached the top he attempted to stand up straight. The pile shifted even more, making it hard for Zack to maintain his balance. Finally when he thought he had good enough footing to try, he jumped up from the pile. Thankfully, on his first attempt, he jumped high enough to grab onto the chair's front edge. He pulled himself up until his entire body was folded into the space between the floor and the bottom of the chair. Next he wrapped his legs around the pedestal that bolted the chair to the floor and lowered his body off the front edge of the seat. He found that gravity would not allow him sit in the chair as he would if it were right side up, instead forcing him to just dangle there. Fortunately, he was able to see the screen, which in his current position appeared to him right side up. He pulled up the mouse by its wire with one hand and touched it to the desk before him. Then with his other hand he pulled the keyboard up by its wire and held it to his body.

Cody looked up in amusement at the sight of Zack dangling upside down from the chair, his hair hanging down, as he tried to hang on to the two devices.

"I wish I had a camera" Cody said.

"Very funny, now hurry up, what do I do?" Zack asked.

"What does the screen say?" Cody asked.

"It's the diagnostic system display screen. There are a lot of red indicator lights all over the image of the ship" Zack replied.

"Okay, those red indicator lights sound like areas where there is trouble. Move your mouse over the indicators and see if it brings up more information" Cody said.

Zack did as he was told and moved the mouse over a red indicator. Immediately a dialogue box popped up and Zack began reading.

"You were right, this one reports flooding...and this other one reports fire" Zack said.

"Is there anything on the display that shows you where we are...where this room is?" Cody asked.

"No" Zack replied, frustrated that he didn't have a photographic memory of the ship's layout in his head like his brother did.

"If you move the mouse over different levels of the ship or individual rooms, does something come up telling you which level or room it is?" Cody asked.

Zack moved the mouse over an area not occupied by an indicator light which wasn't easy since the whole ship seemed to have them. He settled over a blank section on deck 2 all the way forward. A box appeared announcing the room was the Star Tropics Lounge.

"Yes it does" Zack said.

"Okay, now I'll help you find this room...start at the bottom of the ship and count down five lines, that should be deck 9" Cody said.

"Okay got it" Zack said.

"Now, towards the middle of the ship you'll see the corridor interrupted by tiny sections, move the mouse over those sections" Cody said.

Zack did this until a box appeared announcing the secondary control room.

"Found it!" Zack said.

"Okay, are there any threats in our immediate vicinity?" Cody asked.

Zack looked around the rest of deck 9 but found it relatively indicator free.

"No, it looks pretty good on this deck" Zack said.

"Okay, are you getting the hang of the system now?" Cody asked.

"Yeah I think so" Zack replied.

"Can you find us a path up to the bottom that avoids any trouble spots?" Cody asked.

Zack moved the mouse back the way he and Cody had come. He located the reading room and the stairwell where they had parted from Max and Russell. He followed those stairs up to deck 11 and began searching for a path. He noticed that once again they could not go toward the stern because a fire was trapped behind a sealed door that way. Forward looked like a better option but only for a short distance. Then another fire indicator revealed a dead end that way. Between the two sealed doors on deck 11, Zack managed to locate an access route up to deck 12, one which they never would have found on their own. It was another secret door off one of the side passageways that led to a short, one-flight set of stairs. However, once he followed those stairs up to deck 12 two more indicator lights let him know that there was nowhere to go in either direction. Flooding on deck 12 had been sealed off forward and aft leaving only one large room dry at the top of the stairs. He relayed all this to Cody.

"What is the name of that room?" Cody asked eagerly.

When Zack had first mentioned deck 12, Cody's mind had instantly raced to a possible solution, a possible way out. He hoped against hope that Zack would name the room that would make this solution possible. And then he did.

"The transfer room" Zack said.

Cody was so happy that tears threatened to spring into his eyes.

_That's it, that's our way out!_ He thought.

He decided for now to keep this to himself. He needed to find out more information about the ship before Zack passed out from all the blood rushing to his head.

"Alright, I think I have a plan but now I need you to look at other areas of the ship. See if you can find out how much time we have. Look at the indicators that show where the flooding is. Also, try and see if you can find anything that might explain what is causing those explosions" Cody said, suddenly realizing it had been quite a while since they had experienced them.

Zack zoomed the mouse around the ship in the general area they were in, checking for flooding indications. He found several, but most of them were still below their location where they had just come from. Every once in a while a new one would pop up on a higher deck, closing in on their level. This made sense to Zack since the water had been flooding behind them during their whole journey so far. What became alarming was how fast they were popping up.

"The water is mainly still below us, but it's coming fast. There are a few scattered pockets of water on some of the lower decks above us, like the two flooded sections of deck 12 I just mentioned, but none of them are around where we are now" Zack reported. His legs were aching and straining at this point to hold him in place.

He glanced over at one of the other monitors nearby. The screen was flashing something in red letters.

"Hey Codes, this other screen says the ballast tank system has been activated. It says tanks one through six have been filled, is that bad?" he asked.

The euphoria Cody had felt seconds before drained away from him. He knew from hanging out with Harold that the ballast tank system did not come on by itself. Someone had activated it. The ship was not only taking on water from below them now, but also from above them in the ballast tanks.

_That could be where those areas of water above us came from, I doubt those tanks were meant to hold water while upside down _Cody thought before answering Zack.

"Uh...yeah, it means we _really_ don't have much time. Quickly, check the engine room indicators for any information on the explosions" he said.

"That's in the bottom by the back right?" Zack asked. His head was really hurting now.

"Yes" Cody said as calmly as he could manage.

Zack moved the mouse over where he guessed the engine room was, over a swarm of glaring red indicator lights. The information in the boxes that popped up caused his heart to nearly stop in his chest.

"The engine room is on fire! This says there is an oil fire and it's spreading!" Zack said.

"Are there any indications of a fuel leak nearby?" Cody asked. He did not like where his mind was suddenly taking his thoughts. _Please say no...but it's the only thing that makes sense for the explosions..._ he thought.

"Yes, several of them. The main tanks just behind the engine room are leaking. There are several smaller tanks in a separate room nearby but they are no longer giving off a reading" Zack said.

"That's because they already blew up! Zack, that's what's been causing the explosions! The fuel from the smaller tanks met up with the fire in the engine room and they ignited one by one!" Cody said.

"And if those were the smaller tanks, and the main ones are still there but leaking..." Zack said.

"It's a time bomb!" Cody exclaimed.

Zack could no longer hang on. The shock of this news and his fatigue overwhelmed his body and his legs let go of the chair. He slammed into the pile of debris and began falling as it collapsed beneath him. Fortunately, Cody was ready and did his best to stop his brother's fall.

Zack tried to jump to his feet but immediately collapsed again. They had no choice but to wait until some of the blood returned to Zack's legs. As he began to recover, Cody summoned the strength to partially drag Zack down the corridor as the older twin clung to him, an arm over his good shoulder.

Zack had fully recovered by the time they ran back into the reading room. The new surge of adrenaline surging through their bodies allowed them to effortlessly stack some chairs beneath the opening to the air duct until they could climb up to it. Cody went in first with Zack's help. Then Zack climbed up and followed him. This time around they moved through the small duct at a much more frantic pace. They rounded the corner and began heading back toward the stairwell. Before reaching it they heard and felt a large rumble begin somewhere in the ship.

"This is it! The engine room is going!" Zack exclaimed.

Cody had a momentary flash of thought about he and Zack dying inside the tiny little air duct and it terrified him to no end. The ship began to shake violently and both twins heads began to be bounced up and down between the top and bottom of the duct despite their efforts to hold them still. As it was happening, Cody became aware that blood was coming from his nose and smearing on the front of his face. From behind him where Zack was, he heard an even louder sound of bone hitting sheet metal than even his own head was making. Then, just as suddenly as it had started and increased, the shaking stopped.

"Zack? Are you okay?" Cody asked, dazed.

Silence.

"Zack!" Cody called back again.

Silence.

Cody fought a similar urge to panic that Zack must have encountered before. But his urge had nothing to do with claustrophobia.

"Max! Russell! Are you out there!" Cody yelled.

"Yes, we're here! You guys better hurry up! Whatever that was just caused the hatch we came through to give way and now the water is coming in!" Max yelled back.

"Yeah, well whatever it was it knocked out Zack, I can't do anything to help him!" Cody said.

"Are you behind him or in front of him?" Max asked.

"In front" Cody replied.

"Okay, crawl the rest of the way here. We'll pull you out then I'll go in after Zack" Max said.

Cody did not want to leave Zack just laying there in the vent but he knew he couldn't do anything for him in his current position. Reluctantly, he inched away from Zack and reached the opening a few seconds later. Russell and Max caught him as he dropped from the opening.

"We have to hurry guys, and not just because of the water..." Cody began as he glanced down at the onrush of water blasting through the hatch below "...Zack and I found out what's been causing the explosions. We probably don't have much time before the whole engine room explodes!"

Upon hearing this Max and Russell looked at each other in shock, their eyes growing as big as saucers.

"Oh great!" Max exclaimed.

Cody noticed that they had found some supplies during their trip up to deck 11 which included another rope, more flashlights, and a first aid kit. Max took the rope and tied it around one of her ankles.

"When I get to him, you guys pull us both back out" Max said.

Hastily, Russell hoisted Max up to the opening. Smallest of the four, she was able to get through the opening with less difficulty. She made her way over to Zack and grabbed him by his wrists with both her hands.

"Okay, I have him!" she called back.

Cody and Russell pulled on the rope and Max felt herself moving backward. When her arms went taut her backward motion stopped. Outside, Russell and Cody began pulling harder. The combination of the rope pulling her one way, and Zack's bulk trying to keep her in one spot made Max feel like she was being stretched in an ancient torture device. Despite the pain, she was determined not to let go of Zack. Finally, they both began to move toward the opening. As Max dropped out she kept her grip on Zack, using the gravity of her fall to pull him with her. Cody and Russell did their best but the landings were still ugly. Russell absorbed most of Max's fall and Cody, hindered as he was with his arm, had little option but to let the unconscious body of his twin fall right on him. He caught Zack with his good arm and then fell flat on his back. Zack amazingly picked that time to regain consciousness.

"Huh, what happened?...Why am I on top of you? Oooo my head!" he said squinting.

"You have impeccable timing dear brother" Cody said, gently rolling Zack off of him as the others helped them sit up. They all quickly filled Zack in on what had just occurred.

"Well, that explains my headache and why your face looks like it just went for a spin in a blender" Zack said to Cody. Cody took the bottom edge of his shirt and began wiping at his face.

"Can you walk? We need to get going, and fast!" Cody said.

Zack nodded and stood up. He teetered a bit but then steadied himself.

"Alright, let's go!" Zack said.

They started up the stairs at a run. As they ran Cody filled them in about the transfer room and his idea for getting out of the ship.

"You guys remember how every time we entered a port where the ship was too big to dock that we had to get transported to shore by a ferry?" Cody asked.

Everyone nodded.

"Well, we all had to go to the transfer room on deck 12 in order to board the ferry. Remember, they would open that huge hull door and then we would walk over it to the waiting boat?" Cody asked.

Everyone nodded again.

"If we can get in that room and get that door open, it could be our way out..." Cody said before pausing and looking at his brother "...you do remember how to get there right Zack?" he asked.

"Yeah, thankfully that part didn't get knocked out of my head...what was that anyway?" Zack asked.

"No clue, I don't think it was the engine room though. I think if it had been we'd already be dead. It sounded different, like maybe how an implosion would sound" Cody said.

"An implosion! If that's true, as big as it was, we might be sinking even faster now" Max said.

This thought caused them all to quicken their pace even more.

"Cody, one question about your plan. When we open that huge door, won't the water come blasting in and drown us before we can swim out and up to the surface?" he asked.

"You're forgetting one important thing about the transfer room...that's where all the excursion equipment is kept..." Cody began.

Max smiled as realization dawned on her. Zack and Russell still had confused looks on their faces.

"The jet skis, the snorkeling equipment, the _scuba gear..._" Cody finished, emphasizing the last part of his sentence.

Then they got it. The water would flood in, but they would all have on scuba gear.

"Brilliant!" Zack said smiling and clapping Cody on the back.

"The problem might be in the door itself" Cody said after a few moments of silence.

"What do you mean?" Zack asked.

"Well, one thing I meant to have you check on in the control room was if there were any damage indicators on the door itself. You don't happen to recall seeing any do you?" Cody said.

Zack's face took on a look of concentration. Then he frowned and shook his head.

"I don't remember seeing anything...there could have been though" he said.

Cody could sense in Zack's voice that he was upset with himself for not being able to remember.

"That's okay, we have to go there anyway right? We will just deal with the situation when we arrive" Cody said.

They reached the top of the stairs and entered deck 11. Zack and Russell made sure to seal the hatch behind them as they had done with the last one. It wouldn't stop the water from reaching this deck, but maybe by the time it flooded the stairwell and broke through the hatch they would be long gone. As they began to walk through the fairly large room where Max and Russell had found their supplies, they noticed that light showers of water were seeping through the deck floor above their heads in various spots. Cody held out his hands as he passed under one of the showers as if he were strolling down the street in the rain.

"We must be under the flooded section of deck 12" he said.

Max looked uncertainly up at the protesting floor.

"Let's hope it doesn't collapse on us" she said.

As they neared the middle of the room on their way towards the bow their spirits once again began to rise. If what Cody told them about the transfer room was true, they were getting very close to freedom. But _Poseidon_ had another blow to deal them, and when it was over things would never be the same again.


	19. Chapter 19

**AN: I have thrown in a little bit of a spiritual angle in this chapter. Another AN will follow at the end of the chapter talking more about why I included it but for now, enjoy! **

**Chapter Nineteen: Faith**

As the group moved through the room Zack and Cody began to feel uneasy. There was something familiar to them about the room but neither could quite put their finger on it. Then Max put out her arm to stop them.

"You guys smell that?" she asked.

"Yeah, what is that?" Zack replied.

Max and Russell moved in a different direction from Zack and Cody as they fanned out, trying to identify the smell and it's source. As they looked around and the twins took in more of the crew commons, their unease grew more prominent by the second.

"I've seen this room before" Cody said.

"With your engineer friend?" Zack asked.

"No, that's the thing, it seems familiar, but I know we never went through here" Cody replied.

"I know, I feel that way too, but with the exception of going to the transfer room with everyone else when we needed to use the ferries to get to shore, I know I've never been below deck 10" Zack said.

"It's like something..." Cody began.

"...from a dream" Zack said, turning slowly towards a hissing sound near where the crew would pick up their trays.

The twins saw it at the same time, a broken gas pipe and a severed electrical wire right above it. Then it sparked.

"GET DOWN!" Zack screamed as an enormous explosion erupted behind them.

The blast picked up a table and slammed it into Zack who was thrown into Cody. Together with the table they were flattened to the deck. Above them, the blast wave expanded outward in all directions. Max and Russell were picked up off their feet and thrown through the air. The blast caused the deck floor above them to collapse and a deluge of debris laden water began pouring like a waterfall from the breach. The weight of the water and falling debris caused a small section in the center of the room where Zack and Cody lay to cave in and fall 15 feet into deck 10. There was a second smaller explosion and the remaining emergency lights went out.

When it was over, the only thing Zack could hear was a distinct buzzing sound in his ears. The only light came from patches of fire that dotted the room away from where the water was falling. The tiny collapsed portion of deck 11 they had fallen down with lay in a bowl shape within deck 10, still attached to the deck above at each end. Fortunately, large cracks in the collapsed section of deck allowed the water to drain away into deck 10 beyond and not pool up around them.

_Okay, so we're not going to drown right now..._ Zack thought.

As if hearing his thoughts and scheming to mock him, the water that had been chasing them all along from below chose that moment to blast its way into deck 10. The timing couldn't have been worse. Now their bowl began flooding in earnest.

Zack immediately stood up and moved over to Cody. He saw his brother trapped by the leg by what appeared to be two large beams. He knew if he didn't free him that he would loose his twin there. That was unacceptable. He set to work trying to remove one of the beams that bound his brother's leg. Suddenly realizing he couldn't move the object, Zack began to feel panic set in. The water was getting higher.

"Zack, go! Get out of here while you still can!" Cody shouted to him.

"I'm not leaving you here!" Zack replied.

In blind desperation he dove down to the now submerged beams, straining with all his might to move one of them. He surfaced, frustrated and scared. He looked around the room for anything or anyone that could help him.

"Zack...the water will get you too...GO NOW!" Cody said.

_Oh Lord...I'm going to lose Cody...right here...right now_ Zack thought.

"NO! I'm getting you out of here!" Zack screamed as he felt tears coming to his eyes. He had never felt more desperate and powerless in his entire life.

Cody looked down and saw the water inching towards his neck and felt fairly certain he was about to die. Suddenly, a thought came to his mind. It was a distant memory, something he had heard his Grandmother teach him a long time ago.

"Zack, do you remember what Grandma taught us back when we lived with her and she used to take us to church with her? She said if we ever found ourselves in serious trouble to call on Jesus" Cody said.

Zack remembered, but he was unsure if that could really help them now. While he had enjoyed going with their Grandmother to her church as a kid and had learned a lot about God back then, after they had moved away from her and into the Tipton most of what they had learned had been forgotten. But Zack trusted his Grandmother's words and if ever there was a need for divine intervention, it was now.

"Let's try it Zack, I think God may be the only one that can save me now" Cody said.

Zack nodded and then looked up.

"Jesus, I know Cody and I haven't been to church in a long time, but if you can hear me I really need your help now. Please, help me lift this beam off Cody" he said. At the same time Cody said a similar prayer.

Then, once Zack dove back down and grabbed the beam, something amazing happened. A figure appeared in the water next to Zack. He couldn't make out the face but whoever it was radiated a sense of peace and serenity. It also gave off a feeling of intense power. Cody, who had taken a deep breath and was now completely underwater himself, also saw the figure and felt the same feelings. The figure grabbed onto the beam and together with Zack moved the beam off Cody's leg. Cody, now free, stayed under the water, staring at the figure along with Zack. Then, the figure vanished before their eyes and both twins surfaced.

"Did you see that!" Cody said, asking the obvious when they could finally speak.

"Sure did! That was incredible!" Zack replied.

"I'd say we should definitely rethink the whole going to church thing" Cody said.

"You can say that again, thank you Jesus!" replied Zack. Cody seconded this sentiment.

The water that had been steadily roaring in on top of them from above lessened considerably as the flooded section of deck 12 finally emptied itself out.

They began to climb the short distance back up into the remains of the crew commons. To Cody's astonishment his leg where the beam had pinned it was totally fine.

"Thank you again" Cody said looking up.

As they moved up the slanted deck, Zack suddenly gasped.

"Oh no, Max and Russell!" he said.

Fearing the worst, the twins used their new found faith to say a prayer for the well being of their friends. At that point they didn't know if they were alive or if the blast had killed them.

Just then Max and Russell appeared above them, their blackened faces breaking into big smiles.

"Oh thank God" Max said.

They helped the twins back into the room. Max and Zack embraced and Cody and Russell slapped each other on the back. The twins then looked Max and Russell over. Aside from their singed hair and soot covered skin and clothing, they appeared to have survived the blast unharmed.

"It knocked us back into those booths!..." Max began, pointing "...When I heard the blast I thought it was over"

"We were both knocked out by the impact, but when we came to we figured out we were okay" Russell added, sounding astonished.

As they made their way out of the commons and towards the bow, Zack and Cody told them about how Cody had gotten trapped, the prayers, and the figure appearing in the water. They listened with wide eyes.

"I have Grandparents that used to talk about God and stuff too. I never believed them...maybe I should have" Russell said.

"Well when we get out of here we will have all the time we want to learn more about it. I definitely think we were all given a second chance back there and I for one don't intend to waste it" Zack said. The others agreed.

They headed off down the corridor in search of the hidden door that would take them to the dry section of deck 12 in the transfer room. All hoped that soon their nightmare would finally be over.

After leaving Mark's body behind, London and Bob had only managed to descend one more flight of stairs before they could go no further. The stairwell ended at the sealed doors to deck 2. As Bob examined the doors he noticed they did not appear to be straining to hold back water as the ones above them had been. This led Bob to think that maybe the room beyond them had not yet flooded. He relayed this to London and then stood for a moment contemplating their next move. After a while he looked at London again.

"I guess there is only one way to find out for sure" he said.

London nodded and each of them began to loosen the clamps that held the doors shut. When the final one was loose they braced themselves for a torrent of water to come crashing in at them and pushed at the doors. To their surprise and relief, no water came in. They opened the doors fully. They had to push another wall panel out of their way to enter the room beyond but once they did they were astonished by what they saw. It was the enormous Star Tropics lounge restaurant. The dimly lit room contained the bodies of dead crew members and a few passengers as well as the restaurant's tables and chairs that had been scattered about when the ship turned over. Bob and London walked to the center of the room doing their best not to step on any of the bodies and covering up those they could with whatever they could find. Bob looked around for another way they could go but quickly realized they were at yet another dead end. The room was sealed off from the rest of deck 2 by two bulkhead doors on opposite sides of the ship, both of which issued the telltale trickle of water seeping through under intense pressure. He looked at the giant slanted glass windows that arced from one side of the ship to the other across the front of the restaurant. They seemed to be holding up okay against the intense pressure of the black ocean beyond. Occasionally they would make tiny creaking noises as the ship shifted and slowly slanted down more and more towards the bow. The air in the room was hot and stale and had begun to stink of dead bodies.

"So now what?" London asked in a small voice as she took this all in as well.

"I don't know London...I'm out of ideas...I guess we could try to break one of these windows and try to swim to the surface" Bob replied.

"Do you think we could make it?" London asked.

"At this depth, probably not, but it's the only option we have" Bob said.

London began to cry softly, realizing that they were most likely going to die after all.

Bob moved over to her and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Look London, we'll keep that plan as a last resort, in case the ship takes a dive or those doors bust and we have no other choice but to try for it. In the meantime we can stay here and wait. For now we're in a room that should stay relatively dry for a while yet. Plus, there is air to breathe...such as it is. So at least for now we have time...time for a solution to present itself...we just have to be optimistic...maybe a rescue team will find us" Bob said.

He knew the chances of a rescue team finding them way down in this room were next to zero but he had to give London something to grasp onto. To his relief she did seem to calm down a bit with his words. Bob felt profoundly guilty though, guilty that he had not found a better way for them to go, that the choices he made had led to the loss of Mark and landed himself and London in this room, far from where they needed to be which was close to the surface. Feeling defeated, he let out a large sigh and lowered himself into a chair he had turned over to sit in.

London turned a chair over for herself and sat opposite of Bob and looked into his face. The normally not so sharp heiress could tell that Bob was feeling bad despite what he just said about being optimistic. She knew he must be feeling like he let them all down. If they were to die down here in this room together, London wanted Bob to know that she was grateful to him for even trying to get them out. She reached out in a friendly gesture and touched his arm.

"Bob, thank you for trying to get us out. I know you didn't plan for us to wind up here...and Mark's death was not you fault. I know you are blaming yourself, but you couldn't have known what was going to happen back there" she said to him.

Bob looked up into her eyes, wanting to believe her, trying to believe her, but failing miserably. Eventually he did manage a weak smile and a whispered "thank you"

The two eventually decided to start looking around the room for anything that might be of use to them in case they suddenly had to evacuate the room and try for the surface. Bob got some heavy items placed near the windows and London looked for something for them to eat and drink. After a while they returned to their chairs and snacked on what she had been able to find. As they ate some fruit and drank bottled water Bob asked London if she had any kind of faith.

"Daddy was never really big on religion, the only thing he really believes in is money. And that's what he taught me. One of Daddy's wives he had did tell me some things about God. I guess I never really thought much about it. What about you?" London asked.

"My family and I used to go to church every Sunday until I was about 12. Then our parents just dropped it like it didn't matter anymore and we stopped going. I still believe in God though, even if I have been out of touch for a while. If we get out of here I intend to start going again..." Bob began before he paused briefly, deep in thought. "...you know London, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea for us to say a prayer right about now. From what I remember from Sunday school, God can hear us anywhere, even way down in the depths of this ship. It may be the only hope we have now" he finished.

"That sounds like a good idea to me" London replied.

So, in the near darkness of the inverted restaurant, the young man and the heiress prayed, knowing that it would take nothing short of a miracle to save them now. As they did, briefly behind them appeared a figure which filled the room with a comforting sensation both Bob and London felt, before vanishing again.

**AN: Although this website is called Fan Fiction, I wanted to add this bit of truth to this chapter as it is something that I very much believe in. Due to a firsthand encounter I had with God I can say without shadow of a doubt that He does exist and He does hear our prayers. His name is Jesus and, like in the story, if any of you ever find yourself in a desperate situation and can't see any way out of it, call on Jesus' Name and He will bring you through it every time.**

**If Fan Fiction allowed me to select three categories for this story I would have also selected spiritual on account of this chapter. I hope you enjoyed it. **

**I attend an Apostolic church where we believe the Bible as fact and are taught salvation according to what was preached 2,000 years ago in Acts chapter 2. If anyone would like more information I would be more than willing to send any who ask a document that outlines what I believe which is the Apostle's doctrine as they received it from Jesus himself. Just let me know! **


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter Twenty: Out of Time**

Zack, Cody, Max, and Russell moved quickly down the corridor on deck 11. As they went, all eyes searched the walls for the piece of paneling that would lead to the hidden stairwell to deck 12 and the transfer room. After what seemed to them to be a long time, Max thought she saw something.

"Is this it!" she exclaimed as she walked over to a slanting piece of wall paneling.

"Yes, that's it, hurry let's get it moved" Zack replied.

They all began lifting and pulling at the piece of paneling. It soon came free and they tossed it aside. Suddenly from behind them they heard a crash. All heads turned back towards the stern in time to see a wall of water blast into the corridor. The sound of the water rushing towards them was like the sound of an approaching freight train. The emergency lights that ran along the ceiling of the corridor disappeared one by one in rapid succession as the water rushed towards them. In mere seconds it would be upon them.

"Let's get this door open now!" Zack yelled.

Frantically they grabbed at the latches and turned each one. Zack and Russell yanked the door open and they all threw themselves inside. At that moment the water reached the doorway. It took all four of them to force the door closed against the tremendous power of the water. While Zack and Russell held the door closed with their weight, Max and Cody scrambled to secure the latches. Finally after several agonizing seconds, the door was as secure as it was going to get.

After taking a few more seconds to regain their composure, they all started up the short single story staircase. They reached the hatch that would take them into the transfer room and paused again.

"Moment of truth, what we find on the other side of this door will make or break us" Cody said.

The twins undid the latches and swung the door open.

Immediately they were hit in the face with intense heat. It felt like opening the door to a sauna. As they all stepped inside they took in the sight of the cavernous room. Needless to say it was in ruins. Jet skis that had not come crashing down already dangled precariously above their heads. One in particular rocked gently back and forth in what was left of its holding restraints. It looked as if it could come down at any moment but thankfully it was off to one side of the room where they wouldn't have to walk under it. Nearby they could see breaks in several steam pipes that ran along the top edge of the room which accounted for the sauna like conditions. Most of the room's white emergency lights had been taken out by tumbling debris. All that lit the room now were two glaring red lights next to the two sealed hatchways that led to the bow and to the stern. Both were issuing the telltale signs of a struggle to hold back the water that lay beyond them. It struck Zack odd that both would be issuing sprays of water.

"Hey Cody, why is the stern door issuing water? I thought that part of deck 12 emptied out when the crew commons exploded and punched a hole up into it" he asked.

Cody's eyes grew wide.

"It must have re-flooded already from below...which means we are really running out of time!" he said.

It wasn't hard to locate the enormous door in the side of the ship as it took up most of the wall in front of them. Cody immediately spotted the control panel that operated the door but his heart sank as he noticed it was smashed. Climbing up on some debris to reach the panel he began inspecting it to see if there was some way he could still use it to open the door. He pulled away the outside buttons and the broken panel to get at the wires behind them. All the while Zack and the others watched him hopefully from where they stood nearby.

"Okay, I think I can twist a few of these wires together to open the door...that is if they still have current going through them. If they don't..." Cody began before stopping in mid sentence.

He didn't need to finish the sentence; everyone knew if there wasn't enough juice left in the system to open the door, they were finished. Cody pulled the wires from the back of the panel and tossed the panel aside.

"I'm gonna need something to strip the wires" he said.

The other three began looking around the room for something Cody could use. While they looked _Poseidon_, long silent, issued a low moaning sound and shuddered. Then as abruptly as the sound started, it stopped.

_We've got to get out of here; this thing can't stay afloat too much longer, not with all the water that must be in it by now_ Cody thought.

In desperation he began using his teeth and fingernails to start stripping the wires. Unfortunately, that is how he learned that current still ran through one of them. As he bit down a shock entered his mouth. While not a life threatening amount of voltage, it was enough to cause him to lose his footing on the debris and tumble to the deck. Zack, seeing this out of the corner of his eye, immediately rushed over to him. The others were close behind.

"Cody! Are you okay!" he said as he sat his twin upright.

At first Cody couldn't speak so he just frowned and shook his head yes. When he could feel his tongue again he chuckled at his carelessness.

"For as smart as I'm supposed to be I can do some pretty stupid things sometimes" he said rubbing his jaw.

"Got zapped?" Max asked the obvious.

"Yeah, but the good news is we know there is current now" he said.

Zack helped him get to his feet.

"You sure you're alright?" Zack asked again.

"Yeah I'm fine" Cody reassured.

"Well, if it's enough current to knock you on your butt, hopefully it's enough to get that door open" Zack said.

"Let's hope so" Cody replied.

They all resumed the search for a cutting tool. Cody, realizing that he would need some insulation for his hands before touching the wires again, began looking for something rubber to use. All the while he eyed the hatch that led to the bow. Unlike its counterpart to the stern it seemed to be having more trouble holding back the water. It creaked and groaned and looked to be letting more and more water into the room by the minute.

_Just hold on a bit longer_ he urged it.

Looking around with even more fervor, he spotted something that he could use. Lying haphazardly against the wall were a few packaged rafts. He bent down, put his foot on one and pulled the cord. Instantly the raft popped from its square packaging and assumed a boat shape.

"What are you doing Codes? Aren't you supposed to do that after we get to the surface?" Zack asked.

"This one isn't going to the surface with us, I'm going to cut pieces off it to wrap around my hands so I can safely handle the wires..." Cody began before pointing to one of the other packaged rafts "...we'll take one of those other ones with us to the surface" he added.

Zack nodded "now all we need is a…"

"I found a knife!" Russell suddenly exclaimed from the other side of the room where he and Max had been searching, stopping Zack in mid sentence.

"Yeah, one of those" Zack finished.

"Bring it over here Russell" Cody said.

Russell quickly walked over with Max in tow and handed the small Swiss army knife to Cody. Cody immediately opened it and slammed the blade into the raft. With a loud bang the raft popped and instantly deflated. Russell and Max, who hadn't heard Cody's plan, looked at Zack incredulously.

"Has he finally lost it?" Max asked as they watched Cody cut into the rubber of the deflated raft and tare a couple hand sized pieces from it.

Zack filled them in on what his brother was up to and they nodded in understanding. When Cody had finally cut what he considered to be adequate enough pieces for his hands, he stood up and walked back over to towards the huge door. He climbed back up on the debris and wrapped the rubber around his hands and fingers as best he could.

"While I am getting these wires ready it would probably be a good idea for you guys to locate the scuba gear, cause when this door opens it's gonna be like Niagara Falls blasting in here and we are definitely going to need it" Cody said.

There was something in Cody's tone that scared Zack to death. All this time he had just been focused on getting to the door. Now that the time was near for it to open and for the South China Sea come blasting in unhindered from the other side, it was quite frankly terrifying. Many thoughts filled his mind and he was sure the others were thinking the same things.

_What if the water comes in too fast and we get separated? Or Injured? Or both?_

_What if we can't see where we are going and get lost?_

All these thoughts and more raced through Zack's mind as he searched for the scuba gear with Max and Russell. He shook his head clear of those thoughts when he realized that none of those things would matter one bit if the door itself failed to open. In that case he knew they would all die in the transfer room together. They had no other options and nowhere else to go.

He looked over at Max. He knew without a doubt he was in love with her. He didn't even want to think about something bad happening to her. That had been a constant fear of his during this whole ordeal. His heart ached for what Cody must be feeling; having lost the girl he loved already. He then turned and looked at Cody, his twin, his other half. Having almost lost him in the collapse of deck 11 a short time ago he realized that life without him would be, at the very least, unbearable. Zack knew that if he survived, he had to make sure they did too. And then there was Russell. Zack looked over at the bully who had somehow become their friend. While nowhere near as close to him as he was to the others, the situation had brought them together in a way no other situation could have. Zack knew he would be deeply saddened if something happened to him as well. They had all been through so much, they had come so far. To lose any of them now would be unacceptable. That's when Zack remembered the figure in the water. He had begun to accept that it had indeed been some sort of manifestation of Jesus himself...of God come to free his trapped brother and also to protect Max and Russell from the initial explosion. It made him realize that those things probably would not have happened if the end result was just going to be their deaths here and now in this room. It was a thought that lessened his fears and gave him hope.

"Found it!" Max said as she moved some drywall out of the way.

There were several tanks lying on the ground with regulators, face masks, and fins. They grabbed four sets of equipment and assembled them back over by Cody. Zack, Max, and Russell all helped each other get in the gear and then Cody climbed down from the pile and Zack helped him get in his. As none of them had ever gone scuba diving before they were pretty much guessing how everything worked. Cody was the only one who had even read anything about scuba diving and even he wasn't sure. After everyone had their gear on they all tested it to see if they could breathe.

"Is everyone getting air from their tanks?" Cody asked.

Zack, Max, and Russell all confirmed that they were.

"Good I am too...hopefully that means we got it right" Cody replied.

"I guess we'll know soon enough eh?" Zack said.

Cody could hear the shakiness in his brother's voice even as he tried to disguise it in his own. All of them were trying so hard to be brave. This was it.

Although they all had confidence they were going to make it out, they didn't want to attempt what they were about to do without saying something to each other first. So it was that Zack took Max into his arms and kissed her. They embraced and told each other that they loved the other. Then the twins shook hands with Russell and Max gave him a hug. Cody hugged Max and then finally Zack and Cody faced each other. Cody reached out and pulled his brother into a hug.

"Zack I…" he began before his voice caught in his throat.

Zack hugged him back and tears threatened to spill from his eyes.

"I know...I love you too" Zack replied.

He could feel Cody hug him tighter and they stood there for a few more seconds before finally parting.

Everybody had such a look of uncertainty written on their faces over what was about to happen. That's when Zack remembered his thoughts from earlier and decided to share them.

"Guys look, I really don't think God would have saved us back there on deck 11 only for us to die here now...he was there for us then and he will be here for us now...were gonna make it!" he said with confidence now fully in his voice.

His words filled them all with a sense of peace as they nodded in agreement. It was a peace they were going to have to hold onto very tightly though, because the end for the _Poseidon_ was coming very soon.


	21. Chapter 21

**AN: The moment of truth has arrived!  
**

**Chapter Twenty One: Escape**

Now that Cody was burdened with the cumbersome scuba gear, Zack needed to help him climb back on top of the debris pile by the wires. Once Zack was back standing with the others Cody began to give them some last minute instructions.

"The water is going to rush in very fast; I should be okay off to the side of the door like I am... I'm going to loop my good arm around that girder there..." he began, pointing to a steel beam next to where the wires hung by the door "...you guys should back yourselves up against the far wall over there. After the room floods completely we may not have a lot of light to work with. I don't know if the flashlight we have will work once it gets fully submerged so right now while you can still see get your bearings on where you need to swim to before I try opening the door. Once you reach the opening wait there to make sure everyone is accounted for before we head out and up. My guess is the sun hasn't come up yet so the ocean will be pitch black out there. We should probably grab onto each other before we head out and up so we don't get separated. Once we get outside the ship just keep kicking for the surface...it shouldn't be more than 20 or 30 feet...everyone understand?"

Zack, Max, and Russell listened carefully before nodding their understanding and moving away back towards the far wall. When Zack reached the wall he remembered the raft. He reached down and grabbed one by its strings. Cody noticed Zack pick it up.

"Yeah Zack, try to bring that if at all possible. I'm not sure what all is on the surface for us to float on and once this thing goes down..." Cody said, pointing around the room to indicate the ship "...there might not be anything at all to keep us above water. If you still have it when you reach the opening put yourself on the end of our human chain so you can have one free hand to hold onto the raft as we ascend. But if at any point you lose it or find you can't swim good with it, just forget it, we'll just have to take our chances" he said.

"Okay" Zack replied, impressed at his brother's sudden take charge attitude in the face of what was about to happen.

And then it was time. Cody looped his good arm through the nearby girder and took a deep breath. He wrapped the rubber pieces he had cut from the other raft once more around his hands.

"Turn your air on and put your masks in place. This is it, everyone say a quick prayer and I'll see you all on the surface" Cody said, the confidence in his voice very clear. It was what they all needed to hear.

They turned on their air and lowered their face masks. Zack's heart was pounding so hard that he was sure it was going to tear itself from his chest. Instinctively he grabbed Max's hand. She squeezed it reassuringly and he squeezed back. Russell switched on the flashlight.

Cody touched the hot wire to one of the other three. Nothing happened. He touched it to the next one and still nothing happened. Then he hovered the hot wire over the remaining one.

_Hi ho silver_

He touched them together and instantly they all heard a deep electric moaning sound. The red lights that provided their only illumination dimmed. Cody held the wires together for about 10 seconds before separating them. He waited for the ends to cool again before touching them back together. Again the lights dimmed and the electric humming sound emanated from the door. It became obvious to Cody that the door was trying to open when he began to smell the electric motors heating up above his head at the door's base. He separated the wires again after 15 more seconds to let things cool again before trying a third time. The same thing happened. After 15 more seconds Cody became concerned about burning out the electric motors and stopped again. He removed the regulator from his mouth and turned off his air. The others followed suit.

"It doesn't seem to want to open" Cody said.

"Maybe the frame of the ship has bent so that it's jammed" Max offered.

"Maybe there just isn't enough juice left in the ship to make the motors run at full strength" Russell suggested.

"Either that or they are working full strength and there is just too much water pushing on the door outside" Zack said.

"That's it! Zack you're a genius!" Cody said.

"I am? How's that?" Zack asked, not knowing the implications of what he had said.

"There is too much pressure outside!" Cody said.

The others waited for the inevitable, and in this case wanted, explanation.

"It's like those survival shows on TV where they show the car going underwater and what you should do to get out alive. They tell you to wait until the car fills up with water before you try opening the door cause if you don't the difference in pressure from inside the car to the outside will not allow you to open the door. We have the same situation here. We can't open that door unless this room is flooded first!" Cody said in a rush.

"Ok, so how do we flood this room?" Max asked.

All eyes turned toward the now struggling bow hatch.

"We have to open that" Cody answered.

There was a small ladder that led up to a catwalk which ran along the side of the room to the hatch.

"I don't like it...If one of us starts trying to loosen even one of those latches that door could fly open and likely kill whoever is there!" Zack exclaimed.

"What other choice do we have Zack? We can't wait until it breaks on its own! The ship could start its final plunge before that happens!" Cody replied.

"There has to be another way! Maybe we could throw things at it or find a long pole..." Zack began.

At that moment they began to hear a terrifying rumble begin somewhere deep in the ship.

... . . . ... ... . . . ... ... . . . ...

In the engine room of the dying vessel, the final act was set into play. The fires finally caught up with the main fuel tanks and they ignited in a brilliant fireball. The force was so strong that the shockwave, unable to blast through the welded steel bottom of the ship, had nowhere to go but to blast through all the decks above the engine room and out into the depths of the sea. The resulting counter force lifted the entire stern of the _Poseidon_ nearly 20 feet out of the water, allowing the after deck rail to briefly clear the waves, before it came crashing back down. Now, with a gaping hole exposed to the sea in the entire back quarter of the ship, she began sinking stern first very rapidly. All the water that had been in the flooded bow section now began to careen towards the stern, breaking through anything in its path. As the stern section began to sink, the nose of the once proud ship began to rise above the waves and up towards the sky above.

... . . . ... ... . . . ... ... . . . ...

In the Star Tropics Lounge, despite them being at the opposite end of the ship, the shock of the explosion had knocked Bob and London out of their chairs. Both Bulkhead doors behind them gave way at the same time and the room began to flood. Amazingly, the windows that wrapped around the front of the ship held but a crack had shot across them from port to starboard. Water began to issue from the crack. Bob helped London up and they noticed the pitch of the floor beneath them change from nose down to nose up. They prepared themselves for the possibility that at any second they might have to put their plan into action and try swimming for the surface. They said their good lucks to each other in case this was it and held on.

... . . . ... ... . . . ... ... . . . ...

Back in the transfer room, everything happened so fast there was hardly any time for anyone to give directions. They were all knocked off their feet and rattled around on the deck plating before the vibrations finally eased up enough for them to stand. As they stood up they had a few seconds to notice that the pitch of the ship was changing before the bow hatch above them blew clean off its hinges, narrowly missing them, while simultaneously water began blasting in with astonishing force. They were knocked off their feet again by the water, and as they struggled to get up again they could barely hear each other.

"Turn your air on and get ready! Once the room floods I'll try the door again!" Cody screamed above the shrieking sound of the water.

Zack, who he was closest to, nodded, but he doubted the others had heard him. He saw Zack turning to instruct the others as he hurried over towards the door. The water was flooding the room so fast that by the time he reached it he had to tread water. Feeling his feet settle on the debris pile below him, he reached up, pulled down his mask, and stuck the regulator in his mouth. He turned on his air supply and reached for his sections of rubber insulation, but they were gone.

_Oh well, probably wouldn't have helped underwater anyway_ he thought before praying that the water didn't destroy the wire's ability to send the current to the motors.

He barely had time to finish the prayer before the water was up over the wires and his head. Immediately the horrible sound of the water was reduced to a dull roar off in the distance. He slipped his good arm through the girder and kicked slowly in a reversing motion to help him stay put next to the exposed panel. Adrenaline surged through him and he did his best to breathe slowly into the regulator. As he waited for the room to finish filling he turned his head and spotted Zack, Max, and Russell holding position back near the far wall. The flashlight in Russell's hands had indeed stopped working but even in the dim hellish red glow of the two remaining lights he could still see that Zack once again had his fist clenched around the strings of one of the rafts. How Zack had managed to find it again in the sudden deluge of water Cody couldn't begin to fathom but he was grateful his brother had it. Occasionally an object would fall into view from somewhere above and Cody began to get concerned that something would fall on one of them. He didn't have time to think on that long as he realized by looking up that the room had completely flooded. Now the only sounds Cody heard were the bangs and moans of the dying ship and he knew time was up.

_Here goes nothing_ Cody thought.

This time he knew exactly which two wires to make contact with and so, being careful not to grab the ends and complete the circuit with his body, he quickly pressed them together. Even underwater he could hear the electric groaning noise and the lights dimmed once. Again he waited a good 15 seconds before breaking the connection. The door was still not opening.

_At least it's not shorting out in this water...yet_ Cody thought.

He pressed the wires together again and the groaning noise returned and the lights dimmed once more. After 15 seconds passed he let up again.

_I need to make a better connection...but if I grab onto the ends and twist them without insulation..._ Cody thought.

Just then something drifted past his mask. At first he thought it was a fish but then he realized that it couldn't be a fish. He looked after it and realized it was one of his rubber pieces of insulation. He reached out with his hand and snatched it. He held the wires together and used the rubber piece in his fingers to twist the wires together. The groaning sound returned but this time it had a deeper tone to it. Slowly Cody began to detect a sliver of blackness along the top edge of the door beneath him. The sliver grew wider and wider and Cody nearly cried out in joy. The door was opening!

It opened about a foot, then a foot and a half, then suddenly the wires in front of Cody sparked and he heard the motors die out. He looked down in disbelief. They were only going to get a foot and a half worth of clearance in which to squeeze through. Cody swam down to the opening and waved the others over. As they approached he analyzed the situation. They would have to take off their tanks and lower them through the opening first before squeezing their bodies down after it. When the others arrived he was about to use himself as an example to demonstrate this but just then the lights decided to go out.

Zack felt panic surge through him. They had just made it over to Cody who was next to what Zack considered to be an impossibly small opening in the door. It had looked like Cody was about to show them something when they were suddenly plunged into darkness.

_Stay calm_ he ordered himself.

He felt Cody grab his hand and immediately reached out with his other one and grabbed Max's hand. Max in turn grabbed Russell's. A few seconds went by and Zack suddenly felt Cody release his hand and start pulling on his air tank, trying to remove it from his back. At first he didn't understand why his brother was doing this but then it hit him.

_Of course, the opening! We can't get through with the tanks on our backs_

Understanding, he helped Cody slip it off, briefly releasing his grip on Max so he could get the strap off his left arm. After it was off he instantly grabbed her hand again. Zack felt Cody guide his hand to the top of the tank and then make him grab tight to it. Then Cody moved Zack's arm along with the tank, as Cody showed him that he wanted Zack to lower the tank through the opening first. Then Cody gently pushed on Zack's shoulders to show him that he wanted Zack to follow the tank through the opening with his body. As Zack contemplated how he would eventually go about this, he considered dropping the tank and allowing it to dangle from the regulator hoses. But as if Cody could read his mind, he felt Cody's hand suddenly land on top of his where he held onto the tank. Cody then squeezed his hand which let him know that Cody wanted him to keep a firm grip on the tank. Zack took Cody's hand and put it on his head before nodding in a yes motion to let Cody know he understood everything. Then Cody placed his pointer finger on the side of Zack's left forearm and made a gesture with it towards Max and Russell. Zack got the message that Cody wanted him to teach the others what he had just learned. He again placed his brother's hand on his head and nodded. He then felt Cody's hand move down and attach itself resignedly to his right sleeve and took that as his cue to begin and try to communicate what he had learned to Max.

Max was fighting panic as well. A while ago she had felt Zack release her hand briefly before grabbing it again. She couldn't see what he was doing but she felt him lean forward and then come back upright again. After a few more seconds she felt him start to tug on her tank, trying to remove it.

_Why would he want to remove the tank?_ She thought.

Then it hit her. The space wasn't wide enough. They had to pass through separate from the tank. Like Zack, once she caught on she cooperated without hesitation, briefly severing her connection with Russell in order to get her tank off. She grabbed his hand again once it was off and paid attention as Zack showed her through his movements how he wanted her to put the tank through the opening first then herself after it. She felt Zack squeeze the hand she held the tank with so she would know not to let go of it. Knowing her like he does, he must have known she would nod her head yes even though he couldn't see her because as she started to do it, Zack's right hand landed on top of her head. He put her hand over his and stuck out his pointer finger and moved his hand towards Russell in a similar manner as Cody had done. Max instantly recognized this as Zack wanting Max to instruct Russell in the same way as he had instructed her. He put his hand back on her head and she nodded yes again.

Russell was beside himself in fear. After the lights went out he figured his best bet was to stand quietly and hang on to Max's hand. He knew that, despite his intense desire to do so, panicking would get them nowhere. So he stood, waiting while the others moved around next to him, not knowing what they were up to. As he waited he realized that the clock was ticking on their air supplies.

_How long has it been now? 10 minutes?_ He thought to himself.

Then he felt Max try and take his tank off his back. At first he thought she was starting to panic herself and was trying to take his air for herself and resisted her. But after realizing that she would never do that he began to think of another reason why she wanted his tank off. Then it came to him, the gap in the door was not wide enough for both tank and person to pass through together.

_Heck, even with it off I still might not be going through _he thought sourly.

He quickly shrugged his tank off and allowed Max to show him through her body movements that she wanted him to put the tank through first and then go through after it. Like Cody and Zack before her, she squeezed a hand over his hand that held the tank to let him know to keep a firm grip on it and not to let it fall. Since Max had one of her hands on his shoulder near his neck Russell knew she could feel him nodding his head yes in understanding.

At the other end of the line, Cody stood patiently, assuming correctly that Max was receiving her instruction and was relaying it to Russell. He became more and more aware as he waited that the angle of the bow's upward tilt was increasing every minute.

_This thing is going to go down any second now_ he thought to himself before pushing the thought out of his head and saying another prayer.

Unlike what Cody had done with Zack or what Zack had done with Max, Max knew that one of them had to go first and she decided it should be Russell. So after she felt him nod his head in understanding she once again went through the motions of guiding Russell's tank over to the opening and then she gently pulled at Russell himself to let him know she wanted him to go now. Russell didn't resist and she felt him lower his tank down as far as he could. Then he kind of hopped off the edge and into the opening. It was a tight fit but eventually she felt Russell's body descend through the opening.

Zack had sensed that Max was not only showing Russell what to do but having him actually do it. At first he was mad because he thought that Russell had panicked and decided on his own to go first. Then he reasoned one of them had to go first and that Max probably decided it should be him. He felt her start to lower her tank through the opening and helped her position herself over the opening. Then he helped her down through it.

As Max dropped out of the ship she collided with Russell who had hung onto the bottom edge of the door and waited for her. He grabbed her hand again and both of them waited for the twins to come through next.

Cody was becoming concerned. Too much time had passed. Either the others were beginning to leave the ship starting at the end with Russell or they were not understanding the instructions and they were all just standing there using up their air. Just as he was thinking the worst he felt Zack start to move forward and lower his tank down through the opening. He felt Zack turn but just before he went to lower himself down, with his free hand he grabbed Cody's arm and waited, hanging there in the opening by Cody's arm.

_He won't leave without me_ Cody thought.

Cody transferred Zack's hand from his left arm to his right as he swung around and strangely, he felt no pain whatsoever. He lowered his tank through the opening with his left and in one motion, he and Zack dropped through the opening together.

Zack was glad Cody had figured out he wasn't leaving unless they did so together; he was not going to let go of his brother for even a second. As they fell through together he felt Max grab his right hand. All four clung then to the bottom edge of the transfer door. Cody pulled his tank back onto his back and Zack, noticing this, did the same. When Max felt Zack put his tank back on, she did likewise and Russell after her.

Cody released his grip on the door and, holding very tightly to Zack's hand, began to slowly kick upwards. To his relief Zack came away with him.

When Max felt Zack pull away from the ship she immediately let go and pulled Russell with her. Russell likewise felt her moving away from the door and released his hold on it. All four of them were now free of the sinking ship. Their ordeal, however, was far from over.


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter Twenty Two: Surface**

As the group ascended towards the surface, a profound feeling of disorientation and isolation came upon each of them. Even though they all held tightly to one another as they kicked upwards, the total darkness of the fathomless sea that surrounded them brought such a sense of being alone and being…nowhere. It was quite terrifying to each of them. They knew they still faced the sinking ship that stretched out before them because occasionally they would see flashes of light coming from an explosion or a light shorting out. They could hear the rumbling and groaning coming from the vessel as well as the sound of the bubbles escaping from their regulators.

Cody, who had estimated the distance of their ascent to be only 20 or 30 feet, began to wonder if he'd been wrong about it. There was no way to check his air supply in the darkness and he was left to just hope they all had enough to finish the ascent.

_What if we're swimming more backwards than upwards? _He thought, once again fighting a wave of panic.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the group finally broke the surface. The darkness above them erupted into a sky filled with brilliantly shining stars. They all stared up at it in awe, thinking it was the most beautiful sight that any of them had ever seen.

As his gaze moved from the stars back to the overturned ship before him, Cody realized that his last thought before they surfaced had been correct. They had been simultaneously swimming up and away from the ship which had added more distance to their swim. The _Poseidon _now lay roughly a hundred yards from them. Only about a quarter of its bow remained above the surface and it was pointed upwards at about 20 degrees. He reached up and snatched the regulator from his mouth.

"Everyone okay!" he asked.

Replies of affirmation came from each of the others and then they all let loose with shouts of joy that they had made it. They all hugged each other as best they could in the water and with scuba gear on. Then they turned their gaze back to the ship and treaded water side by side.

"I lost the raft" Zack said looking down with an ashamed look on his face.

"That's okay Zack, when the lights went off it's a wonder we all didn't lose each other" Cody replied.

"Let's start looking around for something else to float on" Max said.

They all started scanning the surface of the water for anything they might be able to use to keep themselves above water. The temperature of the water was not freezing, but it was cold enough to where they would get hypothermia if they had to stay in it for very long. There were plenty of broken pieces of the ship littering the water but none looked big enough to get up on top of. Suddenly Russell thought he spotted something in the distance.

"Over there! Look! Over by the very front of the ship, it's red…it might be a raft!" Russell said.

It took a few moments but soon the others spotted it. It looked to be about 500 to 600 feet away from them.

"I think you might be right! Good eyes Russell!" Zack said.

"Let's start for it!" Cody said.

They shrugged out of their scuba gear and let them sink away into the depths. Before Cody released his he checked his gauge reading in the starlight. It read two minutes of air left. He sighed yet another thank you to God and released it. Then he turned with the others and began swimming.

When they were about a quarter of the way to the raft, suddenly, for no apparent reason, the three bow thrusters at the very front of the overturned bow powered up. The propellers in each tube started turning. This caused the group to stop swimming and tread water in place again.

"What the heck?" Zack asked as he turned to look at Cody.

Cody just shrugged his shoulders, having no idea why the three thrusters had suddenly come to life.

They resumed their swimming towards the raft.

Several more minutes of swimming passed when they started hearing a whistling sound coming from the forward most of the three thrusters. Shortly after that the engine inside the tube exploded with a tremendous blast. Fire shot out of the tube in a huge roiling ball. Instinctively, all four of them put their hands up in front of their faces despite being a relatively safe distance from the ship. The fire vanished as quickly as it had appeared and they noticed the thruster engine and propeller had collapsed to the side inside the tube. The other two thrusters ran on as if nothing had happened.

"Whoa!" they all said in unison.

"Again, what the heck!" Zack said, once again looking to Cody.

And again, Cody shrugged.

"Hey guys! Look! People!" Max exclaimed.

Sure enough, from where they swam a little more than halfway to the raft from where they had started, they saw three people walk out to the edge of the thruster tube that the fire had just exploded from and jump into the water.

"Thank God, there are other survivors!" Cody said.

Three more people appeared at the edge of the tube and jumped. These new people also began swimming towards the raft.

"Well, let's go guys, let's not be strangers!" Zack said with a big smile on his face.

They headed off towards the raft again.

As they swam, they saw the other people begin to pull themselves out of the water and into the raft. Suddenly Cody saw movement off to the right…big movement.

"Oh no" he said, not believing what his eyes were seeing.

A terrified scream was heard from the distant raft as the members of both groups took in the sight of the _Poseidon_ starting to roll herself over again. The ship loomed above them and seemed like it was going to come right down on top of them, complete with the still turning propeller blades of the remaining bow thrusters.

"Swim! Swim away from it!" Zack shrieked to the others.

Instantly, the four of them turned from the ship and swam for their lives.

… . . . … … . . . … … . . . …

In the Star Tropics lounge, Bob and London were treading water near where the wrap around windows and the floor met. The upward tilt of the bow had significantly reduced the rate at which the lounge was flooding but unfortunately it hadn't stopped it from flooding altogether. The tiny little air pocket the pair now found themselves in was slowly losing its battle against the water. What little illumination the room below them had left did not lend itself to their little space of air so the two were basically in the dark.

Astonishingly, the wrap around windows at the front of the room, even with a crack in them from port to starboard, still held. Bob reasoned that, with the room being mostly flooded now, the window no longer had to fight against the outside pressure. Things were more equalized now.

_That might make it harder to break the glass… _he thought despairingly.

"Okay, this is it, while we still have this little sliver of air here I'm going down to try and break the glass so we can swim out. Hopefully the bow has lifted close enough to the surface where we can make it in one breath" Bob said.

"Okay" London replied, the fear evident in her voice.

Bob took a deep breath, but right before he dove down the two of them noticed the floor above their heads start to move. It was moving to their left.

"What's happening!" London exclaimed.

"I don't know, just stay with the air pocket, keep moving back with it!" Bob said.

The two of them inched along the floor, doing their best to stay in their air pocket as the ship seemed to be rolling again around them.

"It's rolling back over!" Bob said.

When the port side wall was directly over their heads, at the spot where the wrap around window met the wall, Bob noticed a hand rail enter into their air pocket.

"Grab that hand rail and hang on, we can't keep following the air pocket, the ship's rolling too fast!" Bob said.

No sooner had they grabbed the railing when the window right next to their heads shattered. At hearing the noise of it breaking Bob and London instinctively turned their heads away. At that same instant all the water in the room seemed to fall away from beneath them. The weight of the water against the starboard side of the room had caused the windows to shatter from end to end and the water poured out into the sea below. Bob and London were temporarily left dangling from the hand rail as gravity now acted upon their bodies. The ship continued to roll and soon it was right side up again.

Bob stood to his feet and helped London up. They barely had time to register that they could now see the stars through the empty ship-wide window frame before the sound of rushing water behind them filled their ears. Bob could feel the ship was now sinking very quickly.

"Hurry London, step out through the frame onto the deck!" he said.

He helped her through the frame and she dropped down several feet to the deck below. Bob climbed through and landed next to her. No sooner had they got there then they realized just how quickly the ship was sinking. They had mere seconds to get over the railing before where they were standing would go under.

"We gotta jump. When we do swim away from the ship in case there's any suction" Bob instructed. London nodded back.

They climbed up on the edge of the railing and jumped just as the ocean rushed up along the side of the ship to meet them.

… . . . … … . . . … … . . . …

Zack, Cody, Max, and Russell couldn't believe what was happening. Somehow the _Poseidon_ had missed crushing them to death when it had decided to roll back over. The waves the roll had generated had pushed them a good distance away from the ship. Now the group, along with the other group in the raft who were still some distance away, watched as the now upright shipwreck began to quickly sink stern first into the sea. All her lights were now off and great moaning sounds issued from her in her final death throes. The four watched the ship's last seconds with all kinds of emotions surging through them. For Zack, Cody, and Max, they were watching the ship that contained the bodies of their family and friends vanish into the deep before their very eyes. For all of them they were watching their home for the last several months disappear forever.

A sudden sob erupted from Cody.

"Zack! Mom's in there!" he cried.

Zack instantly closed the few feet between him and Cody and threw his arms around him as both treaded water.

"No Codes, she's not…she's not in there, it's just her body. Mom's with Barbara, Mark, Bob, London, and chef Paulo and they are all somewhere safe…together" Zack said, choking up himself.

Max came over and clung to the twins, crying also. Russell treaded water a respectful distance away before Max reached out and pulled him into the clump as well.

As they watched the rest of the forward superstructure began to settle into the sea, Zack thought he saw something. He wasn't sure, but right at the last second, when the top most level below the bridge was about to go under, he thought he saw two more people jump into the water. He kept this to himself though, figuring it was probably just some debris. Finally, with one last groan followed by a rushing water sound, the last of the _Poseidon's_ bow disappeared under the waves.

All seemed very quiet for a few moments, and then someone in the raft shouted something and a red flare shot into the sky. Zack, Cody, Max, and Russell began swimming towards the raft again. As they got close they started to hear a noise and then to their amazement two helicopters came roaring in from the night. The people in the raft started yelling and waving their arms to get the attention of the helicopters. Finally, after a few seconds of searching, the helicopter's floodlights landed on the raft. The pilots knew they were there. An announcement from one of the helicopters sounded with a thick Chinese accent.

"Stay in the raft, we have radioed your exact position to ships closing in on this location. We will drop an additional raft with a GPS locator beacon, food, and medical supplies in it. Inflate it and the ships will find you. We have to return to our cutter as we are running low on fuel"

With that the extra raft was dropped and the helicopters flew off. One of the men jumped out of the raft and swam over to the one that had just been dropped. He pulled a chord and it self-inflated. It appeared to be just as big as the one that the others were in. The man climbed in and activated the GPS. Then it was quiet again.

"Let's head for that new raft guys, there will be more room in it" Zack said.

The others agreed and they changed course slightly.

About that time one of the people in the raft, a kid, noticed their approach.

"Hey mom, look, there are other people in the water!" the kid said.

Zack thought the kid's voice sounded awfully familiar.

"Hey there! Mind if me and my brother and friends come aboard?" Zack said.

The man by himself in the second raft chuckled, obviously very happy that other people had made it.

"Absolutely! How many of you made it?" he asked.

"Just four of us" Zack replied.

"Better make that six" a voice behind them in the distance said.

Zack, Cody, Max, and Russell all turned around in the water and the people in the rafts joined them in watching two more people swim up.

"It's Bob and London!" Cody exclaimed.

Tears fell from the eyes of all who knew each other, and even a few from those who didn't, as Zack, Cody, Max, Bob, and London swam to and embraced each other.

"How did you…we thought you were…oh thank God you're both okay!" Cody said.

"Same to you guys! How did you all get out!" Bob replied.

"We'll swap you story for story later, right now how about we all get in the raft" Max said.

"Sounds like a plan to me, I've dealt with enough water to last me a lifetime!" London said.

When they all got in the second raft the man who had inflated it jumped into the water again and tied the two rafts together before hopping back into the first one. Everyone was introduced and it was then that the twins recognized the kid. It was Connor whom they had met briefly in the main ballroom before the wave hit and whom Zack had seen rescued from the underside of the piano after the ship had turned over. He and his mother Maggie had made it. The man who had inflated the second raft was named Dillon and the other three people with them were a young engaged couple named Christian and Jennifer and an older gentleman who called himself Nelson.

Everyone looked pretty banged up so Cody got out the first aid kit and went between the two rafts seeing what he could to patch up members of both parties. They shared some of the food supplied in the second raft and tried to keep warm. They swapped stories of their trips through the ship, and shared with each other about those they had lost along the way. Bob and London learned about Carey, Barbara, and Chef Paulo's fate, and the twins, Max, and Russell learned about Mark's. Dillon and the others in his group also told about the people who had been with them that didn't make it. They grieved those that were lost, including hundreds of other passengers and SAS students, but also gave thanks to God for helping them survive. Cody even shared the story about the figure of Christ in the water when his leg was pinned.

And so they floated there atop the burial site of so many, getting to know one another and reveling in the second chance that they had all been given as the stars above them began to wink out with the coming of the dawn.


	23. Chapter 23

**AN: This is the last main chapter. I had intended for this to be the last chapter but it ended up being a bit too long so I decided to break it up. The next chapter will be more of an epilogue. Enjoy!  
**

**Chapter Twenty Three: Rescue **

It wasn't long before a Chinese rescue ship arrived at their location, lowered a ladder to them, and helped them aboard. They were all whisked away to the ship's on board sick bay to be treated for their injuries. When they had been checked out, those who did not need to stay in sick bay for further observation were given clean clothes and assigned a stateroom. Zack, Max, and Russell all checked out fine, just having minor scrapes and bruises despite having nearly been blown to bits. They let Cody go too after checking his ankle and putting his arm in a sling. Bob and London needed a bit more observing having taken some glass to the face when the windows in the Star Tropics lounge had shattered. Their initial prognosis by the Chinese medics was good and there didn't appear to be any permanent damage to their eyes. Connor, who had bonded to the twins like glue since they were rescued, informed them that out of their group only Nelson needed serious medical observing for a blow to the head that resulted in a serious concussion. He was expected to be okay in time. Connor's mom had several broken bones, the result of having been whisked down a corridor by a torrent of water during their escape, but the bones had been set and casts put on and she was resting in her stateroom. The rest of them, like everyone else, just had scrapes and bruises.

After taking hot showers and devouring the first meal any of them had had in hours they all retreated to their staterooms to get some much needed rest. They had wanted to call family members to let them know they were alright but the rescue ship didn't have the capabilities to patch everyone into their family's individual numbers. Instead the ship had reported the names and statuses of all the survivors to its homeport in Beijing. Since the survivors were all U.S. citizens, the port had contacted the U.S. embassy in Beijing who had in turn supposedly contacted the families. London was fairly confident her dad was going to be there waiting for her but the others in Zack's group were not sure who would be there for them. If London's dad was there they figured he would most likely fly them all back in his plane.

In Zack and Cody's room, both twins lay awake on their bunk beds listening to the sound of the rescue ship's engines. As tired as they were, they found sleep to be almost impossible.

"I don't think I'm going to be able to sleep until we're back on dry land" Cody said from the bottom bunk.

"I hear you Codes" Zack replied.

"Do you think dad will be waiting for us in Beijing?" Cody asked. This caused a sigh to escape from Zack.

"I don't know. I'm sure he would want to be there, but unless Mr. Tipton flew him out I don't know if he could make it" Zack replied.

"Mom would…there wouldn't have been anything that would have stopped her from…" Cody started before choking up.

Zack jumped down off the top bunk, sat on Cody's bunk, and gathered his brother in his arms. He held him tight as both of them cried for what seemed like the hundredth time that day. When they had cried themselves out once more, Cody was the first to speak in a shaky voice.

"I don't want to live with dad. I love him but I don't want to go on the road with him and his band" Cody said between sobs.

"I know, me neither. I tried it once remember and I ended up hating it…but we may not have a choice" Zack replied.

"Well, wherever we end up, at least we didn't lose each other on that ship…and we'll have God with us" Cody said.

"Yes, yes we will…and we'll have to make good on what we said and pay a visit to Grandma so we can go to her church as soon as we can" Zack replied.

"Yeah, that'd be great" Cody said, a small smile crossing his face.

"You okay now?" Zack asked.

"Yeah, well, better anyway than a few minutes ago…you?" Cody asked.

"Same, but I think it's going to take a long time for us to really be 'okay.' But like you said, we have each other and God…we'll get through it" Zack said. Cody nodded in agreement.

Zack then climbed back up to his bunk and the two went back to trying to fall asleep.

Next door, London and Max were having the same trouble getting to sleep, as were Bob and Russell across the hallway in their room. It would seem that none of them were going to be able to rest easy until they were finally on dry land.

... . . . … … . . . … … . . . …

The rescue ship pulled into the docks in Beijing late that night. The press was lined up along the shore to take pictures of the arriving survivors. Before departing Zack and everyone in his group, including Bob and London, said goodbye to Dillon and everyone in his group. They had exchanged contact information while still en route in the off chance that they may never see one another again. They were pretty sure though, as the sole survivors of the _S.S. Poseidon_, that they would probably be reunited many times in the future. Below, a pair of limousines and an ambulance waited for them. The limos were there to take the survivors to the U.S. Embassy where arrangements for the trip back to the States were to be made. The ambulance was for Nelson who was to be transported to a hospital for more observation. Connor gave the twins a hug and then he and his mother, along with Dillon, made their way down the gangway to shore and got into the first limo. Christian and Jennifer went next and got into the same car. Then Nelson was helped to the waiting ambulance. Finally, it was time for the twins, Max, London, Bob, and Russell to depart. They made their way down the gangway, scanning the crowd to see who would be there waiting for them. It was tough to see at first but then a giant lump formed in the throat of each twin as they spotted two men standing at the edge of the crowd next to the back door of the second limo. It was none other than Kurt Martin and Marion Moseby.

As they neared, everyone was enveloped into a giant group hug. Tears flowed down many of their faces. Kurt was so overwhelmed he could barely keep his legs under him. He looked his sons in their eyes and did his best to speak.

"Boys, I'm so sorry about your mom…" he began before he choked up. He cleared his throat before going on "…but I am so glad you two are safe" he finished.

Moseby was also finding it very hard to keep his composure.

"When I heard about the ship…I thought…I thought I'd lost all of you…" Moseby began, wiping at his eyes "…Kurt and I caught the first jet out of the States and met up with Mr. Tipton here" he added.

"Daddy's here!" London asked.

"Yes London, he stayed at the Embassy for safety reasons…as you know he's not very popular in China right now" Moseby replied.

London smiled so big the twins were sure her face would split if it was any bigger. They got into the limo and Zack looked over at Moseby. While he was thrilled his father had come, he felt deeply moved that the hotel manager, a man whom he was seemingly always butting heads with but who also was sometimes more of a father to him and his brother than Kurt, had also come. Zack knew he probably came mostly for London, after all the man had practically raised her himself while Mr. Tipton was largely absent from her life. But Zack knew Moseby had a heart of gold and would have been there at the dock even if he and Cody were the only ones that had survived.

"Thanks for coming Mr. Moseby" Zack said.

"Nothing could have stopped me" Moseby replied.

Zack saw tears well up in Cody's eyes and knew exactly what he was thinking.

They arrived at the U.S. Embassy and, along with Dillon and his group, provided the officials there with brief statements of what had transpired the previous night. They were informed that at some point in the future, as they had expected, they would be called upon again to come in and give a more detailed account of the disaster back in the States. London had been overjoyed to see Mr. Tipton and the two clung to each other and cried. It almost made Zack feel bad for his earlier thoughts concerning the man's absence in her life. He was here now and that's what mattered. Moseby had made contact with Max, Bob, and Russell's families to let them know they had survived. He also had the unpleasant task of informing Mark and Barbara's families that they had not. Cody had purposed in his heart that he would meet personally with the Brownstien's when he got home to express his condolences. Bob also intended to meet with Mark's parents to let them know how bravely Mark had fought to survive.

As it turned out, Mr. Tipton would indeed be flying them all back home in his private plane. They would be departing as soon as his security team deemed it safe for them to head over to the airport. As they all sat together in the main lobby of the Embassy in a cluster of plush leather chairs, minus London who was with her father in another part of the building, everyone grew hungry.

"Why don't I go and try to scare us all up some snacks" Kurt offered.

"You want us to go with you dad?" Zack asked in a tired voice.

"Nah, you guys stay here and rest" Kurt replied.

"I'm too keyed up to sit still much longer, I'll come help carry stuff" Max offered.

Bob and Russell also decided they were tired of sitting and accompanied Max and Kurt. That left the twins and Moseby sitting by themselves. Moseby had his eyes closed as he rested from the day's events. Zack watched him sleep for a while until an idea suddenly popped into his head. Apparently, the same thing happened to Cody because at the same time they turned to each other and leaned in, each intending to whisper into the other's ear. The inevitable clash of heads would have been funny to them if they were not so eager to get their messages across to the other.

"I just had a great idea!" Zack hissed.

"So did I!" Cody whispered back.

Zack was too excited to wait and try to decide which one of them should go first and decided instead to just take the initiative.

"What if we ask Moseby if he will let us stay at the Tipton with him so we won't have to try and live on the road with dad?" Zack said.

Cody looked slightly shocked but recovered quickly.

"I swear sometimes this twin thing scares me…that's exactly what I was thinking" he said.

"Let's wake him up and ask him before dad comes back with the others" Zack said.

In a normal voice Cody reached over and gently shook the sleeping hotel manager.

"Mr. Moseby, wake up" he said.

"Hmmm, is it time to go?" Moseby asked.

"No not yet, we just have something very important to ask you" Cody said.

Moseby was fully awake now and looked intently at the twins.

"Ask away" he said.

Cody nodded to Zack, indicating he should be the one to lead off. Zack cleared his thoat and looked a little uncertain, not knowing the reaction he was going to get from Moseby.

"Well, when we get back to Boston do you think…I mean would it be possible if Cody and I…" Zack began.

"Can we stay at the Tipton with you instead of going with our dad on the road?" Cody finished for him.

Moseby was taken aback. He was surprised that the twins would prefer staying with him than going with their own father. But like he knew the situation between London and her father, he also knew the situation between the twins and theirs. He knew they loved Kurt and liked being around him just fine, but he knew they did not want to live on the road in Kurt's tour bus.

"Well, obviously that would have to be worked out between you and your dad since I have no legal rights to you guys…but, if he agreed to it I would be more than happy to take you guys in. I know over the years I've called the two of you hooligans and insisted you were destroying my hotel, but you and London are the closest I'm likely to ever come to having children of my own…so yes, the answer is yes" Moseby said.

The twins instantly hugged Moseby who hugged them back. Then Cody turned to Zack.

"You think dad will go for it?" he asked.

"Sure, he may want to stay with us for a while because of everything that's happened, but eventually he'll want to get back on the road. It's his way of life, it's what he does. He won't want to uproot us and cart us all over the country in his tour bus" Zack replied.

Cody knew he was right. Moseby decided then to re-enter the conversation.

"You should probably wait until we are back at the hotel before you hatch this little plan on your father. Right now I think we're all still a bit caught up in everything that's happened…and speaking of that I also wanted to express my condolences about the loss of your mother…Carey was a good friend of mine and I will miss her" he said.

"Thanks Mr. Moseby" the twins said together before Cody added "and I agree, let's hold off on asking dad until later" to which Zack agreed.

After Kurt and the others returned with some snacks and they had all eaten it was time for them to depart the embassy and head to the airport where Mr. Tipton's plane waited. With his arm around Cody and his other hand holding onto Max's hand, Zack walked up the stairs and into the plane. Behind him walked Kurt, Bob, and Russell followed by Moseby, and finally London and Mr. Tipton with his bodyguards. This time the twins felt no fear as the plane taxied down the runway and lifted into the sky. After what they had been through they knew they hadn't survived only to be killed in a plane crash. The flight back was uneventful. Mr. Tipton's staff made sure that everyone was well taken care of. Full meals and drinks were served. It reminded the kids of the good treatment they used to get on the _Poseidon_. It already seemed like so long ago to them even if it was only just a few days ago that they were there living the sweet life.

Before they landed in Boston, Russell came up to sit with the twins, Max, and Bob. London had gone up front to visit her dad again.

"I just want to say thank you. Zack, Cody, and Max, you guys didn't give up on me…you saved my life. How do you repay someone for saving their life?" he asked.

"You just live the rest of it for the better, in honor of those who won't get the chance we've all been given" Zack said.

Russell nodded somberly in agreement.

"I want to say too that I'm sorry for being such a jerk to all of you before this even happened. I was wrong to treat you all that way…especially you Cody, I regret what I did to you outside the teen club…and I hope we can all stay friends after we get back" Russell added.

"Apology accepted, and I think I speak for all of us when I say that a person can never have too many friends" Cody replied.

The others agreed and everyone either shook hands or fist bumped each other. Russell was part of the group now. The tragedy had shown him the error of his ways and had changed him for the better.

Right about then London reappeared in the main cabin. She walked up to Bob and asked if she could talk to him privately. Bob got up and the two of them took some seats a little ways away.

"What's up?" Bob asked.

"Before we got back to our lives in Boston I just wanted to make sure I told you how grateful I am to you for helping me get out of the ship. I know I never would have made it out of that nightmare on my own" she said.

Bob smiled at her.

"You don't give yourself enough credit. You know, you're a lot smarter than you think you are. And it was you who took an axe and turned the ceiling below us into splinters. I think you could have done great by yourself if you'd had to" Bob said.

"Well, I'm glad I didn't have to. For one thing, half the time I wouldn't have known which way to go" London said.

"It's funny you should say that cause half the time I was guessing myself" Bob said looking down.

London knew he was still beating himself up over losing Mark. She reached out and patted his hand.

"Bob, you need to let it go. You did your best, you gave Mark a chance. I know if he were here there is no way he'd feel like you let him down. He died because of circumstances outside of your control. And you got me out…you did great" she said.

Bob smiled again.

"See, that was something only an intelligent person would know to say. Thank you London" he said.

Shortly thereafter the plane landed in Boston. They didn't have any bags to collect so they all just made their way to the limousines that Mr. Tipton had waiting to take them over to the hotel. When they arrived the staff who had seen them off were there to greet them and offer their hugs and condolences. It was a bittersweet return.


	24. Chapter 24

**AN: I hope you have all enjoyed the story. Sorry it's taken me nearly four years to write it...such is the legacy of writer's block and procrastination. Thank you to everyone who has stuck with it so patiently and to those who kept encouraging me to finish it. And so, finally, here is the wrap up to Poseidon!  
**

**Chapter Twenty Four: New Beginnings (Epilogue)**

Being back in suite 2330 without Carey being there was very hard for the twins. The suite seemed so vacant and alien to them without her there. Moseby had offered to let them move to a different suite and for a moment they had considered it. In the end, however, they decided to stay. The suite was a place they had lived with their mother for three years. It held a lot of happy memories and so, while it was strange at first to be there without her, remaining somehow helped to keep those happy memories alive.

Over the next few days the boys discussed their idea to stay at the hotel and live under the guidance of Mr. Moseby. At first Kurt was surprised that the twins didn't want to come with him but he understood it in the end. The life he led on the road was simply not conducive to raising two teenagers. He signed a form that gave Mr. Moseby rights as a guardian without giving up his own rights as their father. It was complicated but the two men were able to work it out.

Kurt lived at the suite with the twins for about a month. He wanted to make sure his boys were really okay before he went back on the road. During this time Cody had met with the Brownstiens as he'd planned and the sorrow that they now endured would forever be etched in the young man's mind. He had expressed how much he had loved Barbara and how much her loss had affected him. They had thanked him for being such a good friend to their daughter and told him they were glad he and the others had made it out. Bob had also met with Mark's family and told them all about their son's bravery as he fought along with him and London to survive. Mark's parents had hugged Bob and cried, thanking him for trying to get their son out and making him promise not to carry around any guilt at not succeeding. As London had done, Mark's parents told Bob that they knew their son would not wish for him to feel that way. Bob had left feeling much better about the situation yet still feeling deep sadness over the loss of his friend.

After a few weeks of being home the twins, along with Bob, London, Max, and Russell, returned to Cheevers High. All the students welcomed them back with respectful attitudes. They were happy that they had made it home safe while at the same time expressed their condolences over those that had not. Settling back into 'normal' life at Cheevers was not easy. They all had to deal with some minor post traumatic stress issues. Loud bangs and sudden noises would cause them to jump more than they normally would. Some of them couldn't go into small confined rooms or poorly ventilated ones. As the weeks went by, however, these symptoms gradually subsided.

One day about two months after coming home the twins were sitting in class. Cody, usually the super attentive twin, was daydreaming. His thoughts drifted, as they often did these days, to the good times he had had with his mother and also with Barbara. Zack, who had astonishingly decided to start paying more attention in school, was awake and actually taking notes at his seat directly behind his brother. The day seemed to be going normally until there was a knock at the classroom door. Upon hearing it, Cody was snapped back to reality and his eyes followed the teacher over to it where it was opened. The teacher stepped out of the room briefly to speak with whoever had knocked and eventually came back in followed by a girl none of them had ever seen before. Cody looked at the girl and was instantly attracted to her as if some sudden spontaneous connection had been made just by the sight of her. He tried to suppress it, feeling as if his sudden thoughts were somehow betraying Barbara, but he couldn't.

"Class I want you to welcome Bailey Pickett. She has come all the way to Boston from Kansas" the teacher said.

The class issued their greetings and Bailey gave a small wave back at them. Her eyes seemed to settle on Cody before the teacher directed her to a vacant seat off to his left in the front row. He tried not to make it obvious that he was watching her every move, but again, he failed miserably. As Bailey sat down she gave him a small smile and he shyly looked away. It wasn't very long though, less than a minute, before he turned his head to glance at her again.

_Stop it Cody! What would Barbara think!_ he mentally chastised himself as he looked away back towards the front of the room.

It was really starting to bother him and Zack must have picked up on his brother's distress as he leaned forward suddenly.

"You okay?" he whispered.

Cody nodded, hoping that the sweat caused by his mental battle wasn't showing.

Later on after class he attempted to talk about his feelings with Zack. At first his new and improved school motivated brother seemed more intent on getting to his next class than stopping to hear what Cody had to say. Normally nothing would have made Cody more proud of Zack than this, but he really needed to talk to him about his instant attraction towards Bailey. So Cody invoked the one word phrase, Gemini, that they had established on the _Poseidon_ before the accident and Zack instantly dropped everything and gave his twin his full attention. After Cody had explained how Bailey's arrival had taken his breath away and how he felt guilty for thinking that way because of Barbara, Zack started giving him advice.

"Codes, eventually you are going to have to move on with your life and go out with other girls. So you think this Bailey girl is cute…it doesn't mean you have to move right to dating her. Just be her friend for now. Besides, what do you think is the one thing Barbara would want for you?" Zack asked.

"She'd want me to be happy" Cody replied.

"Exactly…and again, there's no rush…just make friends with her and see where it goes" Zack replied.

Cody smiled at his brother. He really did seem to always know just what to say. He turned and noticed Bailey at her new locker. Zack gave his brother and gentle push and Cody found himself moving towards her. When he arrived he prayed that he could remember how to speak.

"Hi, I'm Cody…Cody Martin" He said holding out his hand.

"Bailey Pickett, nice to meet you Cody" Bailey said shaking his hand.

On the other side of the room Zack watched the exchange with a smile on his face.

… . . . … . . . … . . . …

As time went on the twins were eventually called back a few times to testify about what had happened in the South China Sea. At those times they got to see Dillon and the other survivors again and catch up with them. The twins even made it out to see their Grandma who was thrilled to hear about their personal encounter with God on board the sinking ship. They started going to her church whenever they got a chance to visit and each of them eventually encountered God once again when they were filled with God's spirit. It happened at their baptism. The pastor baptized them in Jesus name and when they came out of the water they spoke in a heavenly language as God's spirit gave them the words to say. Not since that time in the bowels of the _Poseidon_ when Jesus had appeared to them had they felt such a sense of peace, love, and joy. This time it was accompanied by a feeling of total acceptance and belonging. God was what they needed to help them move on from the hurt and loss they felt in their lives in Carey's absence. And help them He did. They still missed her every day, but God's spirit living inside of them helped give them the peace they needed to get through it. Whenever they had nightmares about the disaster God would be there yet again to calm their fears. And, obviously, they still had each other.

They would never forget what happened to them that night, but now at least they could live with the aftermath. And life seemed to get sweeter and sweeter everyday thereafter.


End file.
